This was a deceptive statement, for in that period the variety of things imported had enormously increased, and besides the free list was made up largely of articles so rare and unimportant that the ordinary person had to consult the dictionary to know for what many of them were used. In the nature of the case, it could matter little to consumers whether they carried a duty or not. But increasing the free list had become a favorite pastime with enthusiasts like Mr. Kelley. It was presented as a proof of the interest that the protectionist had in the consumer! The general reduction by the Mills Bill of rates on the articles where the tariff affects the multitude, that is, on iron and steel and woollen and cotton goods, was resented bitterly by Mr. Aldrich. He represented the class of Republicans that had come to feel that protection had created these industries and professed to believe that duties low enough to admit foreign goods in free competition with them would be ruinous. The Senate bill raised many of the rates considerably above what they were in the bill of ’83, and in other cases lowered them, but still kept them at a prohibitive point. Structural steel is a case in point. It had begun to show the future which was before it as a building material replacing wood, particularly in larger buildings and in bridges. Under the bill of ’83 the duty had been 102¾ per cent. The Mills Bill made it 49.32. The Allison Bill now put it up to something over 91 per cent. There was no possible justification for so high a duty. Steel beams of foreign manufacture could be put down in the United States at that date at about $27.00 a ton exclusive of the tariff. But steel beams were selling in the United States at $66.00 a ton. The argument which raged over this particular article was typical of the way the two parties were handling the question. Senator Vest, in declaring the rate in the Senate bill excessive, quoted an agreement between Mr. Carnegie and the Knights of Labor as his authority for saying that the cost of turning a ton of pig-iron into steel rails was $4.09, and that steel beams cost 30 per cent more, or $5.32 a ton. In reply to this showing, Senator Aldrich said that $4.09 was not a fair estimate of the cost of steel rails, that it represented only the cost of turning pig-iron into steel rails. That on fixing the duty on rails one should go back to the mines and take the cost of the iron as it comes from the earth and the cost of changing it into pig-iron. To which argument Senator Vest replied: “It seems to me, with the greatest respect to the Senators from Iowa and Rhode Island that the proposition is entirely absurd and without the shadow of logical foundation. The pig-iron comes to the manufacture of steel rails a finished product. The cost of the pig-iron had paid all the antecedent cost of manufacture, and it would be just as forcible an argument to say that if the tailor who makes my coat is to be protected, we are not to