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Show I Schoolmaster's I Indifference I He is Paying Little or No Attention to I the Results of Free-Trade Tariff I Revision. H The Free Trado leaders regard thel: H policies as In no way responsible for H the colossal failure of the Claflln com- H pany. It has recently been pointed H out to President yilson that changes H in the tariff Inflicted great hardships IB upon tho Claflln company. Tito va'.uo 4B of goods of this company, it Is cstl- k mated In textile circles, depreciated 1 $1,000,000 tho day the Underwood H Tariff went into effect. Intrinsically fl tho goods were as va'uablo as ever; M commercially, they1 wero only worth M what It would cost to replaco them. H Tho tariff also hit tho hnuso by tho M feeling on the part of the consuming M public that because of tho tariff the B retail prlco on dry goods would bo rn- m dlcally cut. This resulted In a reduc- H tion of sales, tho public holding oft H for the big cuts they Imagined were B coming, but which as yet has not ma- H terlnllzed. The retail stores control- H led by tho Claflln company felt the H effect of this Immediately, and the H parent house through the Inability of H those concerns to meet their obllga- H tlons. The house also had thousands H of accounts of Independent merchants H who were llkewlsp affected, collec- H tlons becoming somewhat dlfllcult H hnd reorders not as plentiful as would. H naturally be expected. Confidence Serene But Misplaced Tho President Is paying very little' attention to tho disastrous result of tariff revision. With tho serene confidence con-fidence which has marked his handling handl-ing of the Mexican situation ami other oth-er subjects which havo not brought Jrrfdlfto tho administration, President Presi-dent Wilson simply repeats that there Is no business depression and refuses to recognize any ovldenco which does not fit In with his own opinion. Ilccently an Incident occurred nt the White Hoiso which shows tho way tho President has been deceiving himself. He has said frequently that many letters had arrived denying th.M a business depression existed. Efforts wero made to obtain some of theso letters, and they wero promised for publication. Information of No Value When tho letters wero examined It was found that not a single man of prominence had written to the President Presi-dent to say that business conditions wero satisfactory. Tho score or more letters which wero piled on tho President's Presi-dent's desk were from persons wholly unknown, many of them seeking to find a new sensation In writing n let Icr of encouragement to tho President' of tho United States, who Is being- condemned on till sides for permitting permit-ting his theories to Injure prospcrltv. Some of the most encouraging letters were from persdns living In territory but little affected by the tariff, but In no caso was there a s'nglo signer who could bo identified. Disregard of 8ugar Growing Interests The President's cold indifference to fact was never shown so clearly ps In tho fight to retain n duty on sugar. sug-ar. The Democratic party did not pledge Itself to free sugar, nor were the leaders In favor of such i court e. The President, however, had made up his mind, and although the beet sugar sug-ar states and Louisiana besieged the President to give up his radical scheme hq remained unmoved. All he would say was that ho would order an Investigation after tho sugar duties du-ties had been reduced, with n proviso for free trade later on, hnd that It any Injustice was found to have been dono It would bo rectified. A Sort of Investigation Months have passed and no reports re-ports havo been filed by tho seven. Investigators who were assigned to Investigate the beet sugar Industry. Four have been working In Wjit Virginia, Vir-ginia, two In Michigan and one In lud'aua, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Ion a. These agento of tho Ilureau of Corporations of tho Department of Commerce have found that out of the total of 70 beet sugar factories 13 arc entirely closed down nnd arc not contracting for future, acreage. Not only are the owners of only are the owners of these factories factor-ies 13 nre entirely closed down and are not contracting for futuro acreage. acre-age. Not only are the owners of these factories losing their profits, but their thousands of employes are out of work while the farmers .who previously sold them beets must find some d ffcrent market. No Definite Information Chief Robertson, who Is In charge of tho Investigation, admitted to the writer that ho had not received from the agents In tho field any definite 'nformation as to tho number of factories fac-tories closed down. It Is likely that this fact will be kept secret for as long n tlmo ns possible, but It is known definitely that 13 factories are closed nnd when Truman G. Palmer representative of the beet sugar Interests In-terests In Washington, was asked to, nnnflrnl thlfl lift did SO. Hopeless of Saving the Industry Not long ago there was n well defined de-fined report that tho Houbo leaders wero ready to rcotoro tho old duty on sugar In order that tho beet sugar sug-ar industry might survive. It np pears, however, that the only basis Tor this rumor was tho. operation of ;i clique of Wall Street men who wanted to boost beet sugar nia'ket and who set tho story In circulation Most of tho leadero are hopeless of having the beet sugar Industry under the present administration. Mr. Palmer, speaking of this said: Can Only Be Saved by Restored Protection I would like 'to think otherwise, but I nm forced to tho conclusion that wo must waft for tho return of tho Protective Tariff before wo can hope for action In our specific case. It Is truo that 13 factories have al-ready al-ready Bhut down nnd that the others 4iro not working on full tlmo. The whole question Is as to the length of time It will ake to put factories ou of business. Tho Industry Is making-contract's making-contract's cautiously, because It is Impossible for us to compete under our present wago scale, with cheap labor from Europo. The duty Is now one cent, but on May 1, 19MUM bo wiped out altogether. AlMp er factories will then be con-rW oto go out of business, go out of business. Cannot Live Under Present Conditions Mr. Itobe-tson, on behnlf of the Ilureau of Corporation said that It might bo some tlmo before final reports re-ports nro mado by tho soven agents who aro now In tho Held. Ho said that they wero sending in field re-portp, re-portp, b'lt that It would tnko a long tlmo to analyze, tho data In order that n final report might bo mado up. He ao 'Id not say what he thought of present conditions, or tvhht iccom-mendatlons iccom-mendatlons would bo mado In tho reports. re-ports. It Is known, howover, that most of tho Investigators feel that tho beet sugar Industry cannot llvo under un-der present conditions and that some-thng some-thng will havo tn bo dono If tho Industry In-dustry Is to bo saved. Whether tho President will permit such a report to be mado public, howover, Is hn, entirely different question. Tho secrecy sec-recy that has characterized this administration ad-ministration from its very beginning will probably apply to tho report showing (ho disaster that has como upon tho sugar Industry. The Facts Must be Made Known It Is nover pleasant to exploit depression de-pression in trado but tho Indlffen enco of tho President to exlstlnc conditions con-ditions Is so colossal that It Is ncc- essary for the public to learn and study the facts If tho President were ncutally trying to correct the sltuntlon that exists tho public might sit bock and lchvo results to him. In view of Uie administration's present attitude, however, It Is necessary that facts should bo stated. The Democratic leaders contend that there Is no depression in business, busi-ness, hnd President Wilson hlmsolf, while conccrn'ng that there Is Borne dulness, affirms that tho cause Is psychological, henco It is qulto Important Im-portant that the real condition be known. The Falling Steel Barometer Tho Iron and metal market Is the barometer of trade. Tho official records re-cords show that 423 coke and anthracite an-thracite furnaces In tho United States only 197 wero In blhst on Juno 1. Eighteen nddltlonal furnaces went out of blast during May. Among thoso blowu out wero threo at Buffalo, Buf-falo, one at Stcelton, two In the Pits-burglj Pits-burglj district, one in West Virginia nnd the rest In Ohio and tho West. Four blast furnaces were blown In last "rnonthHono in tho Lehigh Valley, Val-ley, due in western Pennsylvania, one In New York and ono In Ohio. |