sold his wool seemed so profitable, an increase in price more than sufficient to sweep away all the tariff profit he received upon the wool he produced and sold. “When the number of farmers engaged in wool-raising is compared with all the farmers in the country, and the small proportion they bear to our population is considered; when it is made apparent that, in the case of a large part of those who own sheep, the benefit of the present tariff on wool is illusory; and, above all, when it must be conceded that the increase of the cost of living caused by such tariff becomes a burden upon those with moderate means and the poor, the employed and unemployed, the sick and well, and the young and old, and that it constitutes a tax which, with relentless grasp, is fastened upon the clothing of every man, woman, and child in the land, reasons are suggested why the removal or reduction of this duty should be included in a revision of our tariff laws.” One of the most significant parts of Mr. Cleveland’s message from the point of view of present-day developments is that in which he pointed out the relation of the tariff to the trusts. By this time (1887) the movement to prevent any lowering of domestic prices of the protected articles by natural-competition was already strong and alarming. The sugar trust, the National Lead Trust Company, the National Linseed Oil Trust, the Copper Syndicate, the association of steel men, the combinations in wax, rubber goods, oil cloth, and dozens of other highly protected articles, were worrying the whole country. “It is notorious,” Mr. Cleveland wrote, “that competition is too often strangled by combinations quite prevalent at this time, and frequently called trusts, which have for their object the regulation of the supply and price of commodities made and sold by members of the combination. The people can hardly hope for any consideration in the operation of these selfish schemes.... _The necessity of combination to maintain the price of any commodity to the tariff point, furnishes proof that some one is willing to accept lower prices for such commodity, and that such prices are remunerative._” Mr. Cleveland did not neglect either to touch upon another feature of the protective trust which was causing uneasiness and of which he was soon to learn much more than he knew then, that was, the measures being taken to prevent any revision at all. “So stubbornly have all efforts to reform the present condition been resisted by those of our fellow-citizens thus engaged (in protected industries) that they can hardly complain of the suspicion entertained to a certain extent that there exists an organized combination all along the line to maintain their advantage.”