Naturally it was not the interests of Mr. Sawyer which the timber Senators pleaded! It was the cause of the lumbermen and of the millmen. The tariff must be kept up in order to give them their higher wage. They must not be put into competition with the pauper wages of Canada! As a large percentage of the laborers who received this higher wage were Canadians who came over for the season only, the argument had little effect. It was not argument indeed that saved the lumber duty. It was saved because the Southern Representatives who threatened to defeat it were told they could not have a duty on sugar unless they consented to one on lumber, and they made the trade. Such barter went on openly in many other items. One of the most determined efforts to force a duty was made by Senator Mahone of Virginia, who wanted $2.00 a ton on iron ore. The Tariff Commission had allowed 50 cents—the Senate Committee had allowed 50 cents, but Mahone made a fierce fight for more. He tried for $2.00, for $1.00, for 85 cents, for 75 cents, for 60 cents. He brought up the point at every opportunity, but again and again was voted down overwhelmingly. “I’ll defeat the bill if this duty is not raised,” he is reported as saying, and Sherman backed him in his threat. His attitude was the attitude of the representatives of various other interests, big and little; that is, it developed almost as soon as the debate began that leading Republican Senators were determined to keep up duties in which certain of their constituents were interested and that to do this they were ready to trade and dicker with fellow Senators. That this determination of Sherman, Mahone, and others was clearly demonstrated was due largely to the quick wit and the daring of Mr. Beck. He filibustered so adroitly from the beginning of the contest over the schedules that again and again he forced Republicans committed to tariff reform to go on record against a proposed reduction or for a proposed increase. In Sherman’s struggle for the increased duty on pig iron, Senators like Morrill, Allison, Dawes, Frye, Hoar, Hale, Hawley, all voted against an increase at first, but finally were whipped into line, Allison being the last to yield. Mr. Beck gloated over them, loudly pointing out how different ones had solemnly declared on the floor they would not support the increase, yet had yielded at last. Nothing could stop him. An effort was made to limit the debate to ten days. “Never!” shouted Beck, “not to ten weeks.” Not even the effort of his party to put an end to his obstruction availed. He gloried in his insubordination.