American wages and still compete in foreign markets. Their machinery, they believed, was more efficient; their organization more economic; they had eliminated waste; herein, in their minds, they had the advantage. So, in 1900, Mr. Redfield went to Europe to explore the new field. His trip proved a success. In many places he found that he could compete with the foreigner; sometimes in price, more often in product, sometimes in both. Orders from Europe increased. He even went into such iron and steel headquarters as Manchester and Birmingham and took orders under the noses of the English manufacturers - just as, in recent years, Americans have sold steel rails for the tram cars in Sheffield. As a result of these experiences Mr. Redfield's contempt for a protective tariff was naturally intensified. One day a fellow manufacturer came into his office with a petition, addressed to Congress, asking that the tariff on their products be increased. He asked Mr. Redfield to sign it.

"Unfortunately," said Mr. Redfield, "I have already signed a petition asking that our duty be reduced. What do you want the tariff put up for?"

"So that we can keep up the American rate of wages and the American standard of living."

"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Mr. Redfield, "I'll withdraw the other petition and sign yours on this condition: that you enter into an agreement with me here, in case the increased duty is obtained, to add that percentage to the payroll of your employees."

But his competitor left the office in a huff.

Mr. Redfield left the Williams company nine years ago and became a manufacturer of blowers. Up to 1911, he was practically unknown outside of Brooklyn. At the special session of Congress in that year, however, he made his appearance in Washington; (the Democratic landslide Democratic landslide that fall had carried him into Congress.) Until then Mr. Redfield, except for a term as Commissioner of Public Works under Mayor Seth Low, had figured little in public life. And he certainly showed little practical political insight. At first he

struck most observers as a rather queer figure in Washington. He seemed peculiarly out of key with his surroundings He had none of the camaraderie which is so essential to popularity in the Capitol He was too much the bustling business man; he walked rapidly through the corridors, sat at his desk with the preoccupied air of a factory president adjusting himself to the day's work, and im pressed most people as powerfully strong in his facts but rather feeble in his humor He was nothing of a handshaker or a backslapper; he always seemed to be in a hurry; to those who approached him his air was too much one of "What can I d for you this morning?" He had an uncomfortable habit, when fellow members were talking to him, of pulling out his watch, caressing his whiskers, perhaps glancing up at the ceiling. Even wher important party members dropped in at his office, Mr. Redfield was too much inclined to finger his mail. When Mr. Redfield did unbend there was a puffiness in his manner that irritated. He had a fondness for making impressions; conversation with him too frequently became a mere monologue. He liked to make his points forcefully, to use exaggerated ge ticulations, and to work up cumulatively to a dramatic suspense. These actions were unquestionably unconscious, the result of a life spent in hard, competitive business, and did not indicate any fundamental objection to social amenity; but as a result, his associates hesitated about disturbing him. When Mr. Redfield, or day, rose to speak, therefore, his receptior at the beginning was not over-cordial That he should raise his voice a few weeks after taking his seat in itself was not a recommendation. recommendation. Members at their first session, like little children, are usually seen and not heard. Mr. Redfield's business experience, however, had taught h that the man who asserts himself is the one who succeeds. Those who had beer watching him in the preceding few days knew that something was going on. The Republicans had been speaking on the tariff; the usual banalities-pause" labor, American wages, the futility competing with Europe had once more

been dragged out to do service in a rather creaking, rusty debate. As the thing went on, Mr. Redfield even noticeably became more fidgety; every once in a while he would pull an old envelope from his pocket and make a few pencil notes.

"Finally," he says, recalling the episode, "I got so mad I couldn't stand it any longer." He jumped up and exploded.

He had no prepared speech-only a few scrawling notes on the envelope. Dr. Holmes says that every man can write at least one good novel, if only he takes his own life as the subject; similarly, every man can probably make at least one good speech, if only he bases it upon his own experience. When Mr. Redfield started, the few members present were busily writing and reading their papers; but his sharp, staccato voice, and the torrential flow of his words soon made them cast their papers aside. Other members began to stray in from the lobbies and cloakrooms, and in a few minutes Mr. Redfield had the attention of the whole House.

At first a few Republican leaders attempted to interrupt; the rapidity with which Mr. Redfield, however, "embalmed those flies in the amber of his eloquence" soon discouraged attacks of this kind. Mr. Redfield had really spent thirty years in the preparation of that one speech; in fact, the few months preceding the session he had spent traveling in Europe, Africa, India, the Philippines, Japan, and other lands as a salesman for his new business, the American Blower Company. He was taking large orders for these useful articles in Bombay, when a cablegram called him home for the special session. He was thus well prepared to meet the charge that American manufacturers could not compete in foreign markets. Part of his speech was simply an itinerary of his selling campaigns abroad. He told how he had ridden behind American locomotives in Japan and Formosa; how he had seen Chinamen wearing American cotton goods in Manchuria; how he had read his paper by

SECRETARY REDFIELD AS A BOY DURING HIS SCHOOLDAYS AT PITTSFIELD, MASS.

American electric lights in Calcutta; and shaved himself in Java with the assistance of soap made in New Jersey. He analyzed

MR. REDFIELD IN EARLY MANHOOD

labor costs as they had never been analyzed before in Congress. When Mr. Redfield finished that speech he had made himself a national figure. The whole tarif discussion had taken a new plane. Wha rejoiced the Democrats was that these things had been said, not by a college professor or a "theorist," but by a successful manufacturer. The government printing office could hardly supply the demand for that speech. Nearly 3,000.000 copies were ultimately circulated As a result of this success Mr. Redfiend became the most loquacious first-tem Congressman Washington had seen :: years. Despite the admonitions of h friends who told him he was "talking to much," he made nine speeches-mar of them solid, forceful, and useful in forming public opinion.

Hunters of historical parallels may fire some similarities between Mr. Redfields career so far and Cobden's. Cobden, like Mr. Redfield, was born poor, had to educate himself and make his own way. He likewise served an apprenticeship as a commercial traveler, and gained his knowl edge of trade by actual experience as a manufacturer and by foreign travel. He came to Parliament unknown and imme diately made himself famous by a sing speech assailing the protective tariff of his day. He held up before the English public the weaknesses of the corn laws as Mr. Redfield has held up the absurditie of Schedule K. And the corn laws were the fighting-point of the tariff in S Robert Peel's time just as the wool duties are the storm centre at the present session

All these things explain Mr. Redfield's presence in the Wilson cabinet. He the Administration's spokesman on manufacturing and trade questions. He t a new "advance agent of prosperity" of a democratic kind. The Redfield influence was plainly marked in the Presi dent's message on the currency-in it forecasting the "new industrial day"the day when efficiency takes the place of waste, when American resources and genius, freed from the restraining hand a high protective tariff, strikes out into its own strong, independent stride. ( casionally even now committees of manu

facturers come to Mr. Redfield to protest against the pending tariff bill. They are invariably submitted to a minute and disconcerting cross-examination. Recently, for example, a broken-hearted manufacturer came in and declared that, under the new conditions, he couldn't possibly make 6 per cent. on his stock.

"What is your capitalization?" the Secretary began. A few minutes' conversation disclosed that the complainant had increased his capitalization six times without adding a penny to his equipment. He had been milking his business for years - and now complained because the Government wouldn't subsidize him further. Mr. Redfield asked him about his system of keeping costs and found that the manufacturer's mind was blank on the subject.

Toward men of this type, however, the department's attitude is not hostile, but helpful. A general course in industrial education is part of the Administration's plans. And this brings us to the most interesting and original idea brought out. by the new Secretary. When Mr. Redfield outlined his new policy, at a dinner to the employing lithographers a short while ago, the newspapers at once devoted columns to what was called "Redfield's threat." But Mr. Redfield made no "threat." The situation was this: the employing lithographers had issued a public statement that, in case the new tariff went into effect, they would immediately reduce wages. Mr. Redfield, in accepting their invitation to speak, devoted his remarks largely to this statement. If the lithographers actually reduced wages, he said, it would properly be the duty of his department to investigate the industry and find out to what extent such a reduction was justified. Such an investigation, he declared, would be undertaken in the most judicial and scientific spirit. It would include all phases of the business-materials, management, machinery, plants, locations, wages, capitalization, and the like. If the American lithographers, he said, found that they couldn't compete with European, it was properly the duty of the Department of Commerce to find out why. Was it

necessary to jump to the conclusion that high wages made it impossible; might not the difficulty be in any of the other items that determine cost? Mr. Redfield mercilessly drove home his point by quoting from leading articles in the lithographers' own trade papers. These papers for months had been filled with complaints of the "inefficiency" of American lithographing plants; their wastes, their unscientific use of materials, and the like. Possibly these elements, said Mr.

THE LATE J. H. WILLIAMS

MR. REDFIELD'S EMPLOYER AND PARTNER IN THE MANUFACTURING BUSINESS, FROM WHOM HE GAINED THE ORIGINS OF THE PROGRESSIVE BUSINESS IDEALS WHICH, IN THEIR LATER INDEPENDENT DEVELOPMENT, MADE THE SECRETARY A LEADER IN THE MOVEMENT FOR TARIFF REFORM

Redfield, explained why Americans found international competition difficult; at least it might become the duty of his department to find out.

"The newspapers," says Mr. Redfield, "entirely distorted what I said. They asserted that I had threatened to expose to the world the inside secrets of any plant that reduced wages. I had said nothing of the kind. I never purposed to investigate any individual plant; all that I

suggested was that we might investigate the industry as the industry as a whole. It would be improper, of course, for this department to hold up individual manufacturers to obloquy and make public the details of their business. It would be entirely proper however, to make a scientific examination of a whole industry. Such an examination, conducted by experts, would be immensely valuable. The manufacturer would learn a great deal from it. Many are paying efficiency engineers large sum to do for them this very thing - which in this case the Government was to d. free. Such an investigation, properl conducted, would show the manufacturer new and economic methods of manage ment, give them new ideas on the technica side - we have an elaborate Bureau c Standards here, in charge of some of the country's most experienced chemists, wh could unquestionably find out much tha: would be practically valuable in the lithographing trade or in any other. Such an investigation would also show to wha: extent high wages are, after all, responsible for the high cost of the product. With this explanation, I stand now upon everythin I said to the lithographers. The sugges tion, however, was not put forth in the spirit of a threat; rather of coöperation Indeed, we are making now such ar investigation of the potters' industry This is being made at the request of the potters themselves. When we have finished and the investigation will prob ably take a year- we shall know more about this particular industry than we have ever known before. And the information will be valuable especially to the potters themselves."

Unquestionably, the Secretary of Commerce is a man who improves on acquaintance. Since the fourth of March hostile critics have been eagerly looking for the "Ballinger of the Wilson Administration several men have served their purpose ir turn; at one time Mr. Redfield, because of his supposed "break" in his speech t the lithographers, was acclaimed as a likely candidate. But Washington is now revising its estimate. It recognizes M: Redfield as a man of brains and even of industrial imagination.