But such disregard
of home industry, the "patriotism" of the New England
manufacturers could not endure. Along with the report just
quoted, the Quartermaster-General forwarded to the Secretary of
War a long argumentative protest from a committee of the Boston
Board of Trade against the purchase of army clothing in Europe.
Any American of the present day can guess how the protest was
worded and what arguments were used. Stripped of its
insincerity, it signified this: the cotton mills were inoperative
for lack of material; their owners saw no chance to save their
dividends except by requipment as woolen mills; the existing
woolen mills also saw a great chance to force wool upon the
market as a substitute for cotton. In Ohio, California,
Pennsylvania, and Illinois, the growers of wool saw the
opportunity with equal clearness. But, one and all, these
various groups of parasites saw that their game hinged on one
condition: the munitions market must be kept open until they were
ready to monopolize government contracts. If soldiers contracted
pneumonia doing picket duty on cold nights, in their summer
blouses, that was but an unfortunate incident of war.
Very different in spirit from the protest of the Boston
manufacturers is a dispatch from the American minister at
Brussels which shows what American public servants, in contrast
with American manufacturers, were about.
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