Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/264

222 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS to which he had been called, demanded, he helped to shape the character of the legislation on the schedules upon which there was the most difference of opinion. He freely discussed these schedules with those who had a claim upon his consideration of their views. The sugar people were the most active and earnest in trying to secure a reversal of the program of free sugar. They sought to im press the President with the view that a protective duty, which would bring in large revenue, should remain on sugar. He heard, he conferred, he de bated, and declared that free sugar must be a part of the bill, and free sugar is in the Underwood- Simmons bill. The famous Schedule K, long called the key to the protection arch, had given so much trouble to the Democrats in the prior Con gress that they had to be content to levy some tax on wool, much to the regret of the many who for more than a quarter of a century had been fighting for free wool. The advocates of a tariff on wool wished to enact the same wool schedule that passed the Sixty-second Congress, but the President stood firmly for free wool, as did nearly all the newly elected Congressmen, and free wool is in the bill. The old plan of permitting the beneficiaries of the tariff to write the tariff schedules, which put money in their purses, had come to an end. The Presi dent, with the overwhelming majority of his party in Congress, subordinated every local consideration