The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1866-04-26


mungo. 1t has come to beassociated wit
fraudulent contracts and snohbery, sine
furnished through deception in place q
wool. What is 1t but picked up mass O
broken fibers, taken from worn and rotte
garments. imported from junk-shops
stripped from the lazzaroni OF the Oh,
World, from hospitals and pest-houses
with such satanic greed and cupidity tha
rebels by the Importation of foreign rag
required but few devices to bring anon,
us loathsome diseases and pestilence p
How gross tho impositions visited on ou
/ soldiers!
What they bought for cloth was as des
tituts OF fiber as putrid flesh of muscle
altogether wanting in strength and dura
bility. How mortifying to the gentleman
having innoccntly suppose, that his bea
yer coat was OF the best merino staple. tc
know that he wore the less gent.el thar
secondhand clothing. segregations taker
rom pettiooats cast off by South Ameri
can barbarians and clothes worn by Itai
ian beggars, which have crowded the hold.
OF the vessels touching our shores! This
is no fancy. The fact of the imposition,
and too willing degradation is known tc
all our manufacturers. The importation
the last year was five million pounds
which required at least two million sheer
for its growth, almost equal to the num-
ber found in the great State of Pennsylva-
mia. Twenty-seven million pounds were
imported in four years. And what were
the cash profits of our humiliation p
Three cents pound duty. Most pitiful
return for the iinpositions practiced for
four years on a million soldiers and unsus-
pecting ladies and private gentlemen. AS
ono who would protect the wool-grower
from indignity, and cloth wearers from a
sham and u fraud. would make no trsa-
ty stipulation with Canada for its iinporta-
tion, and prohibit it from abroad, and
place shoddyite and rebel on the same pro-
bationary plane.
COMPARISON WITH OTHER ARTICLES
PROTECTED.
In my argument, if indulging In COM
Parsons l shall not be regarded as mimi
cal to any great interest now protected,
but ask why hemp and fiax receiving gen.
srouS protection are more entitled to it
than wool7 These articles impoverish the
land while sheep husbandry enriches it.
We haze more hemp manufactured at $40
\ ton protection than will he tested at this
political juncture for rebel neck ties, and
cannot be compared with wool, the com
mon staple, which ir facility for imparting
beauty gives a thousand hues and colors
ndestructive as the fabric itself; and as
promoter of health can never be supplant-
I'd. Why should the occupation of the
have preference to that or the
who only takes from the
'arth to lei in the light; the other rescuing
rom earth's surface the grasses to clothe
he man, an earlier Necessity than light?
m pence and in war gunpowder has re-
'eived higher protection than wool. hul |
necessity for gunpowder than covering Tor
he soldier who bears the gun. or are there
my compensating considerations in favor !
If rude al-burners or chemists?
Salt-boilers are not more patriotic and
Intelligent than shepherds; nor can the |
of this necessary article
make that plea for favor of the wool-grow-
,r. that he restores wastes, enriches lands.
md contributes to the promotion of the
irst great wants of the race in furnishing
vet a bushel of salt, worth thir-
W five cents, has q protection of eighteen
;ents, while II pound of wool, worth fifty
,ents, enjoys protection of five cents per
pound. / offer no apology for the plea
make in behalf of our great clothing sta
pie. This gigantic interest, representing
hundreds Of millions OF dollars, has had
no special defenders, and i ask, as in the
last Congress #.E e8.
"Can Government reasonably ask the
flock master, wounded in our battles. re-
turning home tn his farm, man OF edu-
cation, meeting the responsibilities OF
citizen and the head of a family, to COM
pete with nomatis, the hali-clothed tribes
of South America and South Africa, who
sleep in huts, subsist on tropical fruits,
nothing to social order and
the stability of Government, races who now
Hood our markets with wool?"
If a comparison of the claims OF the sew
eral great interests shall secure harn,o-
NOUS and equal justice in our legislation,
the burdens OF Government will be more
cheerfully met. and that new portion of
the country in behalf of which l speak
may safely inaugurate n policy which will
attract population and capital, and permit
us to enter upon new era OF growth and
prosperity.
: THE NORTHWEST.
The new States of the Northwest, repre-
senting five million people, have added
not less than a half million to their popu-
lation during the past five years. OF the
tillable lands, but one third of the area is
under improvement; yet twenty millions
bushels of wheat, i'll granaries and eleva-
tors, are waiting purchasers, and hun
dred million bushels of corn is found in
excess of home demand. The much priced
grain market in Europe has become of less
value than that Of the city of Washington
during one session Of Congress, and the
actual export the last year was not more
than the consumption of McClellans ar
my while ditching by the banks of the
Chickahoniny. Were railroad aud ship.
ping charges reduced to the rates before
the war, four fifths of the surplus grain
product would not pay for transportation
to the best market. Added to other rivals,
Russia has just become powerful and
successful competitor in the grain markets
Of Europe. Her people are industrious
and skillful. Wheat is indigenous to a
hundred million OF her acSes which have
just been brought forth from isolation.-
The main railroad line connecting Baita