The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-12-22

THE wool growers of Washington
county, Pennsylvania, had Misunderstanding
meeting at their Court House last week.
The object of the meeting was to con-
cert general movement among wool
mon orsuch an increase In the tariff ~,
would protect the growers against
foreign competition. There was consid-
cradle diversity of opinion as to what
was really necessary to be done--as to
what in fnct allied the wool market. Ii
was some time before any one in the
meeting could tell what was the present
duty on wool, and therefore how much
it should be increased. Mr.. Mcfarland
was of the opinion that combination
existed among the manufacturers to
keep down the price, and they accom-
Plished their purpose by purchasing
large lots of foreign wool, throwing it
ON the market, and thus depressing the
price for tho American article. He did
not know how otherwise it could be that
wool cloth was so dear while wool itself
was so cheap. He thought the two ought
TO bear an exact relation to each other.
Mr.. S. Wierich, very sensible sort OF
n man We should Judge, could not see
the difficulty altogether in the ligh: of
foreign competition or manufacturers,
combination. Less wool, it seems, has
been imported into the country this
year than last, and yet the disparity be-
tween the raw and the manufactured
article is greater than ever.
''He was n tariff man, but If our
wool was going down in price while a
less amount was being purchased in
foreign countries, It was by no means
clear to him that an increase of the
duty would remedy the evil OF which
they complained. He had thought OF
this matter frequently, and had about
como TO the conclusion that the fault
~ with the people here themselves.
1t was notorious fact that we were
dependent on the Yankees for almost
everything. Every one of us were
dressed In Yankee suit from head tC
fnot. We even had to rely ON them to
keep us out OF the snow. In proof OF
this we had only to look ut home. He
could remember when there We're over
one hundred apprentices in this town
and now there were scarcely anger
tAinly there We're none learning the
tailoring or ShOemaking business, and
but few We're employed in the other
trades. We relied for shoes, clothing
and everything else almost, upon ar
tcles manufactured in the east. II the
manufacturing business was so enorm-
ously profitable MS IL seemed to be, and
was being built up mt our expense, we
Shoulu embark in it ourselves. We
had all the natural advantages neces-
sary, ana our people should therefore
turn their attention TO il as Il means of
saving portion OF the money CONSTANT
ly drawn away from us to nav for
many things that should be made
here"
In our opinion Mr.. Werlich struck
the key note OF the question in the
foregoing remarks.
If the manufacturers ofthe East are
manufacturing wool into cloth at such
an immense profit, why not manufac-
ture the wool of Washington county
into cloth in the town of Washington
or in Pittsburgh or Wheeling. ItIoOk.
very trifling and foolish to be giving
away all the profits to the Yankees
when 1t could be retained at home. The
true doctrine would be to build up
home market for the wool. Get the
spindles at work in the wool growing
regions just as they are doing in the