The success of the National Association in getting into the bill exactly what it wanted was generally believed by those who knew what was going on in Washington at this time to be due to the confidential relations with the Finance Committee of the secretary of the Association, S. N. D. North. During the making of the Wilson Bill, Mr. North was known to have had a desk in the office of Senator Aldrich, and from that vantage ground to have made a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to secure for the industry he represented something of the favor which other lobbyists were wresting from the Democrats. During the making of the Dingley Bill he occupied the same inside position. To all appearances he was a confidential clerk of Mr. Aldrich’s; as a matter of fact, he was a paid representative of the woollen manufacturers, looking after their interests while apparently aiding the Finance Committee as he could. That Mr. Aldrich, himself, did not understand the real nature of the wool schedule finally adopted, one can hardly doubt, for he told Mr. North at the time, according to a letter the latter gentleman wrote to Mr. Whitman: “I don’t suppose this tariff is going to last long, because the rates are so high; but I am perfectly willing that the wool manufacturers should have all that there is in it and that the tail should go with the hide.” The influence on the bill of this despotic power of the wool interests was similar to that of sugar on the Wilson Bill, but it did not make itself clear in the Senate as it had in the earlier bill. It came out in the conference of the two Houses which followed the passage of the bill by the Senate on July 7. Some 872 amendments had been tacked to the measure and the conference spent nearly a fortnight over them. When finally reported, the rates were generally higher than either the House or Senate had advised. It was impossible to give to wool all it demanded on a threat of defeating the bill, unless other interests were favored, and so it happened that when the Dingley Bill was finally passed, it was, on the whole, a more oppressive measure than the McKinley Bill. Moreover, it was made more oppressive by a House and Senate whose leaders had declared from the beginning of their work that the country asked and had been promised moderate duties. It was as real a breaking of promises as the Wilson Bill was a surrender of principles.