words, "I can afford to fight the President and beat
him, but I can't afford to fight him and be beaten."

Governor Flower shared these views. There was little
trouble in getting our party to agree to the large re-
ductions I proposed. The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Bill
was adopted. Meeting Senator Gorman later, he ex-
plained that he had to give way on cotton ties to secure
several Southern Senators. Cotton ties had to be free.
So tariff legislation goes.

I was not sufficiently prominent in manufacturing to
take part in getting the tariff established immediately
after the war, so it happened that my part has always
been to favor reduction of duties, opposing extremes --
the unreasonable protectionists who consider the higher
the duties the better and declaim against any reduc-
tion, and the other extremists who denounce all duties
and would adopt unrestrained free trade.

We could now ( 1907) abolish all duties upon steel
and iron without injury, essential as these duties were
at the beginning. Europe has not much surplus pro-
duction, so that should prices rise exorbitantly here only
a small amount could be drawn from there and this
would instantly raise prices in Europe, so that our
home manufacturers could not be seriously affected.
Free trade would only tend to prevent exorbitant prices
here for a time when the demand was excessive. Home
iron and steel manufacturers have nothing to fear from
free trade. [I recently ( 1910) stated this in evidence be-
fore the Tariff Commission at Washington.]

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