Southerners; iron and sugar interests were strong in their districts, both claimed special protection and both received it. The Mills Bill aroused a tremendous discussion. The “Great Debate,” as it is called in tariff annals, lasted for over a month. One hundred and fifty-one speeches were made, those of Mr. Mills, McMillin of Tennessee, Wilson of West Virginia, Scott of Pennsylvania, Cox of New York, and Carlisle of Kentucky were the most important on the Democratic side: those of Reed of Maine, McKinley of Ohio, Burrows of Michigan, Butterworth of Ohio, and Kelley of Pennsylvania, the leading ones on the Republican side. The Democratic attack was along the lines of Mr. Cleveland’s message with particular emphasis on the small per cent of wages directly affected by the tariff and the large amount of the duty which went elsewhere than to labor. A large body of expert calculations on these points were at their service. The first point had been recently solved by three able statisticians, each working independent of the other. They were Worthington Ford, E. B. Elliot, and Simon Newcomb. The results at which they arrived were bad for the claim that high wages depended on protection. They showed that as a fact the duties affected but a small amount of labor; according to Mr. Ford 4.07 per cent, according to Mr. Elliot 4.34 per cent, to Mr. Newcomb 5½. That is, there was 94 per cent of the wages of the community which were not affected by tariffs, although the earners of these wages were paying higher prices for many of the necessities of life because of these tariffs. On the second point Mr. Mills and his colleague had the completest official study of the cost of production in the United States which had been made up to that time. This study was in the first report ever published by the Bureau of Labor,[1] and was made by our first Commissioner, Carroll D. Wright. Mr. Wright showed conclusively how much less a part muscular labor played in the cost of a great bulk of protected articles than was supposed. Since the Civil War machines had displaced men in the making of agricultural implements, until 600 men did what formerly had required 2100; in boots and shoes 100 were doing what had formerly required 500; in carpet making, in cotton weaving, in the lumber business, in the production of metals, in the manufacture of paper, of woollen goods, of tobacco, of silk, of practically everything, indeed, a sweeping displacement of hand labor had taken place and always with a resulting increase of quantity and decrease of labor cost. This was in 1886, and what was then a comparatively new development is to-day an old story, but one far more wonderful. Machines have multiplied and improved in practically every industry, with a resulting decrease in labor cost. Footnote 1: The Bureau was established by Congress in 1884, President Arthur approving. Mr. Cleveland made the first appointment in January, 1885.