It fell to William McKinley of Ohio, who for the first time in the Great Debate showed his skill in tariff matters, to answer Mr. Mills. “It is an old story,” he said lightly. “It is found in Adam Smith, but it is not true”; and to prove it was not true Mr. McKinley awakened the House by dragging from his desk a full suit of ready-made clothes. Holding them up triumphantly in one hand, he showed in the other a bill for them. They cost just $10.00. “So you see,” went on Mr. McKinley, “the poor fellow did not have to work 10 days more to get that suit of clothes.” There was “great applause and laughter” on the Republican side and there was talk of having the suit photographed to show in the campaign. Mr. Mills said nothing, but he began an investigation. He sent to the shop where, according to the bill read by Mr. McKinley, and printed in the Congressional Record, the suit had been bought, and secured one like it. He then traced it to the manufacturer and from him secured an exact analysis of its cost. The result pleased him and he decided to save it for his speech closing the debate, but when the day came Mr. Mills was so full of facts and figures that he was forgetting the suit. His son, Mr. Charles H. Mills, was in the gallery, and realizing the situation passed down a note reading, “Don’t forget McKinley’s suit of clothes.” A smile passed over the Colonel’s face and taking a fresh start he presented the result of his investigation. The gist of his entertaining remarks was that the suit had actually cost to manufacture, tariff aside, just $4.98. The labor cost was $1.65. The tariff on the wool used in the suit was $1.70. Adding this to the $4.98, gave $6.68 and on this sum the manufacturer was allowed a duty of 40 per cent to compensate for the wool tax and also of 35 per cent to protect him against the imported article. The whole cost, plus the three tariffs was $10.71. “Of course,” said Mr. Mills, “the manufacturer had to undersell the foreign suit and to do so he dropped under him 71 cents and sold his $4.98 suit for $10.00 with the help of the tariffs.” As for Mr. McKinley’s comment that the illustration came from Adam Smith, Mr. Mills had a story to tell. It reminded him, he said, of the small boy who was caught thieving and whose mother in chiding him, said, “Don’t you know it is wrong to steal? Don’t you know what the Bible says?” “Oh, now, mother,” the youngster replied, “that’s an old story. Moses told it 4000 years ago.”