The fact is that this great politico-industrial alliance of cotton and worsted has been the backbone of protection. Not of protection as the country understood it, but of _protection as Mr. Aldrich understood it_. To Mr. Aldrich protection never has been a set of principles to be applied with care and candor. It has always been a trading system. I think it is entirely fair to Mr. Aldrich to say that from his first connection with Congress he saw that the tariff, properly worked, was the surest road to power and to wealth that this country offered to a politician. He saw the trading possibilities in it, and he intelligently and persistently gave his great ability to developing them. The backbone of the system he worked out was this alliance between cotton and worsted. In that alliance he had a dependable block of votes with which he could carry to success almost any duty which would strengthen the party, oblige a friend, or help his own pocket. This block of votes was behind practically every increase, and manipulation in the bill of 1909. To Mr. Aldrich’s credit let it be said that he has made as little pretence that he was not carrying on a traffic in duties as any man in the business. On the whole, he may be said to have been frank about it, especially in private. The tariff bill of which these schedules were the backbone became a law on August 5, 1909. There was something distinctly tragic in the reception the country gave the new law. Depressed, cynical, sneering comments were heard on all sides. Congress went home anything but proud of itself. Here was a piece of legislation which had cost the entire time of a large body of legislators for more than a year, to which an extra five months’ session of Congress had been given, and from it nobody carried away enthusiasm, pride, a sense of triumph,—nothing but a disagreeable coppery taste of barter and jugglery, the depressing feeling that he who has gets, as a rule, in the Congress of the United States. The only satisfaction was the negative one that at least it was over. The pity of it was that they had had so fine a chance to do a real thing. It was a task for statesmen. The nature of it was clear enough. Nobody was for upsetting a reasonable protection. But practically everybody but the beneficiaries were for cleaning up the tariff. The evils inherent in it—and nobody of intelligence ever denied that they were many—were big, easily seen: