Mr. Whitman’s individual support is not to be despised, but with it has always gone the support of his association. It means the support of the great “wool trust” with William M. Wood at its head, and it means also, as we have seen, the support of the wool-growers of the far West—not, be it noted, of _all_ the wool-growers of the country, but of those who, like the worsted manufacturers, are getting more out of the present duties than their competitors, and are therefore most anxious to keep them. These are the men who produce a wool which on an average will yield only about 44 pounds of clean wool in every 100 pounds sheared from the sheep. Yet their protection on this 100 pounds is the same as that of the farmer of the South whose wool yields 60 pounds to every 100, or the Eastern and Middle state farmers whose wool yields 52 out of every 100 pounds. The protests of these Eastern, Southern, and Middle West farmers that they are not fairly treated were no more heeded by the makers of the Payne-Aldrich Bill than the protests of the carded woollen and carpet manufacturers. The reason is obvious enough. The Western wool-growers are as loyal and generous in their support of their Senators as are Mr. Whitman and Mr. Wood of theirs. Each group—the wool-growers of the far West and the worsted manufacturers of the East—controls a good-sized block of votes. By uniting these blocks they control probably the largest and most dependable vote of any tariff-protected interest in the country. It is a vote which for over forty years has never bolted. It is a vote which always gets what it asks, for the simple reason that it is powerful enough to defeat any duty in a tariff bill if the backer of that duty is hostile, and nobody doubts it will exercise the power if tried. It is the size and solidarity of the vote which explains why when, through the boldness of the insurgents, the most odious features in the wool business had been laid before the Senate and a motion was made to send Schedule K back to the committee for revision, it was lost by 8 yeas and 59 nays. It is Mr. Taft’s reason—given frankly enough after he found the odium of allowing the schedule to stand was not going to pass. “_The interests of the wool-growers in the far West_,” said Mr. Taft, “_and the interests of the wool manufacturers in the Eastern states, and in other states, reflected through their Representatives in Congress, were sufficiently strong to defeat any attempt to change the wool tariff, and had it been attempted it would have beaten the bill reported from either committee._” Apparently the same combine was strong enough to prevent the presidential veto the country had a right to expect from Mr. Taft. Not less significant than the experience of wool in the Payne-Aldrich Bill was that of cotton.