Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1857-03-13

in England, though the fact has not been here
so generally acted upon. that the most profit
will accrue from sheep with fceccs weighing
from three to four pounds, instead of one TO
ono and half pounds, and whore the carcass
is TO be rcckoned as an equal moiety of the
net proceeds
Again, it is urged that we noeed not fear
competition with England or Europe in rais-
ing wool. because our land is so much the
cheapest Those who make this statement
lose sight of the vast plains and steppos Of
Russia, South America, and Australia, where
single individuals own hocks Of from ten
thousand to sixty thousand, and where the
cost of keeping the year round is confined TO
a few shepherds and a few dogs. They for
get that Russia offers in perpotuity vast tracts
of unoccupied public lands to those who will
establish large sheep-folds within her pre-
cinct and that her expectations Of wool in
1874, not including Poland amounted to So
379,36O pounds Touching the incapacity of
England to compete with us, il would be suf-
hcient TO point to the fact, that while one of
her writer's, as early as in 1866. asserted that
wool is the flower and strength, the revenue
and blood Of England" she now produces
more than double the quantity of wool that
is raised in the United States. and much more
than France, Notwithstanding her limited com
paratve area and that the price the past
season was an average one Of at least forty
cents per pound The native home of the
South Down and Leicester sheep cannot be a
weak competitor in the wool-growing busi-
ness. On this land view of the matter will
give the testimony--which my friend from
Ohio has already cited-of Lord Napier, of
Scotland, before the committee of the House
of Lords in 1928. He said
" II We had mot sheep upon It, Il would become thc
haharou Of suire and foxes and return 10 waste More
than ouchaf of Scotland is occupied u raising Chevot,
or blaek-faoed sheep"
1t is stated that the wool-grower has been
protected for the past ten years, but deny
the fact. The greatest protection the wool
grower has had is. that nearly all the manu-
featuring nations Of the world are also large
purchasers of wool. Consumption is outstrip-
ping production. Tho demand for wooden
clothing in all its forms is increasing. When
ever the rate of duty upon woolens is less
than that on wool. the latter receives no pro-
lection, because the former will be imported,
and crush both the wool grower and the man
utacturer Our present tariff, as was obvious
at its birth, and as it is now conceded by the
present Secretary of the Treasury. has opcr-
ated to discriminate against woolcns, and if
against woolcns, of course against WOOL
Mr. Guthrie says, in his able and honest re-
port:
Now we import sl,oio 5o7 Of wool for our manufac-
turcrs who pay duty OF thirty per cent upon and
which we pay different rates OF duty viz thirty per cent
on part twenty-five per cent part and twenty per
cont part whilst with wool free Of duty in other
uactufn- countries. the duty operates discrimination
against tIH labor and rruifnI nrunIe Nus
peculiarly the with the coarscr fabrics which ad-
init at a less duty than we impose upon WOOL
The higher value here of capital and labor
gives TO the foreign manufacturer advan-
tage which thirty per cent scarcely more than
compensates In 1910, when the duties on
woolens under the compromise act had fallen
TO twcnty-eight per cent, and were to be re-
duced the ncXt year TO twenty per cent, all
the woolen manufactures of the country had
to stop. That showed the point to which
the woolen manufacturer required support
and ] am for conceding it now. 1t is neces-
sary in order TO secure home market fol
wool. know of no other way Of protecting
wool but by putting the manufacturer wheel:
in motion. To do this the duties on woolens
must be higher than upon wool. When this
Is done TO a reasonable extent, and when all
or nearly all dye stuffs are admitted free of
duty, then | think the manufacturer should
say, Hold, enough and if he attempts
anything more, he may "go a WOOL gathering
and come home shorn'
The gentleman from Rhode Island Mr.
Durfee) the other day stated that ''what We
do want is a reliable, steady, increasing home
market Exactly. | agree with him. But
he is for opening our ports, so far as wool is
concerned, to the competition of the world.
Is that the way to give the wool-grower a
home market, If you will entirely prohibit
the Introduction of wooden manufactures, that
would give us the home market, and the
wool-growers would need to ask no other
protection. That is what France does to-dayi
and when she recently proposed to remove
the prohibition, even that was coupled with
provision for a bounty upon all cloths export
ed If we tax cloths, and afterwards find
that France pays a bounty equal to our tax
what protection would be realizeds But
considering the high price of wool, now high
er than it has been since 1884, with an unre-
mitting struggle in France, Belgium Germa-
ny, and England for the manufacturing SUI
premacy, is it not more likely that other ma
tions may feel impelled to levy an export du-
ty upon wool than woolens That would
place us entirely in the hands of foreign
Governments. Unless we mean to abandon
sheep-larming altogether, and there is nc
stock more beneficial TO the soil than sheep
it seems to me that we should give some en-
couragement to the increase and maintenance
of the business throughout all our wide do
mains, for there is no portion of the Union
that may not more or less proftably engage
in it. In the northern and New England
States for the past ten years, the growth Of
wool has fallen off somewhat but in the
western and southern States it has greatly
increased, and ought not to be diminished
The whole amount of wool raised in 1910 in
the United States, 35,602,l ,ll4 pounds
being an increase of about fifty per cent.
submit the fact (vide table A ) TO gentlemen
from the South and West, that the wool oi
very many of the southern and western States
increased from 1910 to 1850 more than three
hundred per cent. If the business in the
East is waning, it ought not to be further de-
pressed if it is a rising one in other sections,
it has the highest claims to encouragement.
The policy | have indicated would in the
end be most to the advantage of the manu-
notwithstanding to him home supply ol
the raw material, and shielding him from the
annual fluctuations of foreign markets and
foreign hostile legislation, and it is huctua-
tions he has most to dread-not high prices
of wool