When the session closed Chairman Payne set on foot a series of investigations ostensibly to gain information to be used in the coming revision. It is possible that this was also an attempt to end the criticism aimed at the leaders who had opposed the appointment of a commission. Both the Democratic and Republican platforms of 1908 promised tariff revision, but of course in different ways. The Republican leaders said the policy of the party would be to fix the duties at a point which would not only offset the higher cost of production in this country, but would also guarantee to the manufacturers a fair profit. The election put the conservatives of the Republican party in control of all branches of the government, and when the principal committees of both houses of Congress fell under the control of men fully committed to the dogma of protection, the chance for a revision downward seemed slight. A special session was called soon after President Taft's inauguration, and the Payne Bill, which it was claimed aimed to decrease duties and increase the revenue, passed the House by a vote of 217 to 161. The Finance Committee of the Senate, to which the bill was referred when it reached the Senate, instead of reporting it, reported a substitute measure--the Aldrich Bill. This the House refused to accept and the usual conference committee was organized, out of which committee came the compromise Payne-Aldrich Bill, destined to become law through the President's signature, August 5, 1909. The debate in the Senate was a noteworthy one. The progressive senators of the Middle West, led by Dolliver, of Iowa, and La Follette, of Wisconsin, fought the measure sturdily, but with little success. "Jokers" slipped in here and there, and more than one critic has charged that the Senate was less solicitous for the rights of the consumers than for the rights of the "interests." Several schedules have come in for the most severe kind of criticism. In the cotton schedule the increased rates laid upon certain classes of cotton goods seem to have been imposed for the benefit of New England manufacturers. These rates affect articles used by every person in the United States. Most of these articles are manufactured from raw material produced in America, and the cost of manufacturing the staple articles is but slightly higher than in any of the important competing countries. The average rate imposed by the Dingley Tariff, according to the Bureau of Statistics, was 38 per cent on cotton cloth and similar rates on other cotton goods. Since 1897 the "infant industries" have grown, and some have in recent years declared dividends of 66 per cent per annum. The Payne-Aldrich Bill increased the average rate on cotton goods from 44.84 per cent in the Dingley Tariff to 50.62 per cent. The increases are not so much on the high-priced goods as on the cheaper grades.