Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-05-18
WOOL AND wOOLENs.

!
On the other hand wool anufactures car
be successfully attempted by the rudest civil
izatiOn. Something can be and has beer
achieved everywhere and in almost every age
| True it is that technical knowledge of the
true composition of dyes, of ern-drawing
and of the most improved machinery give.
| power TO minister to something more than
the bare necessities of mankind, and to sup
| ply some share of the more costly comforts
and elcgances of life but the domestic
manufacture of common wooden cloth u
some extent has existed and must exist in
nearly all countries. The coarse and cheaply
made goods, when not produced through the
aid OF modern mills must be had through
the simple spinning wheel and hand-loOm.
In northern climates wooden clothing is not
less vital than food itself, and nOI country
should be dependent upon foreign and dis
tant lands for either one or the other. IL
our Government did not cOnnive Mt snug
Cling blankets from our enemy in the recent
war, as it did in the war of 1912, we yet in
point of fact obtained considerable part of
our first supplies from abroad. That coun-
try continental in dimensions, surprisingly
rich in its broad extent of pasturage, should
be unequal to the production of the wool it
annually consumes is not for a moment to be
supposed. IL is a fact, however, that for
years we have drawn from abroad large
quantity of the wool we have consumed, as
well a much larger proportion of wOolens.
The amount of wool imported in 1865 was
20 ,449 .32l pounds. and 40 ,Sl2 1872 pounds
in 1869, valued at 81 ,6SS, 34S, or at an
average cost of IA. cents per pound. The
value of woolens in 1869 amounted to S35,-
054, 407. of carpets alone we imported
3 1881, $50 yards, valued at 81 ,26l ,25S. These
facts prove that the duties on wool aud
woolens are by no means prohibitory.
1t is true that many classes of wOolens do
not bring first cost, but that is true of cotton
goods 4 and is to be attributed to the general
depression of trade and the character of our
currency; and it is also true that no wool
produced above forty degrees north latitude
now brings over three iourths of its actual
cost.
The policy or impolicy of a duty on foreign
wool has long been debatable ground
both here and abroad. In France the duty
on wool was 20 per cent. 0d UaLOren up to
1855, when it was made free, but the price
there for fine wosl in 1867 was less than 2j
cents per pound. The Romans at an early
day introduced the spinning of wool and
weaving of wooden cloth to the inhabitants
of England, who previously were only cloth
ed in skins. Wooden manufactures were
finally established in England in the reign Of
Edward I'LL, A. ID. 1881. Only six years
thereafter the expectation of wool was in
terdicted, and the " wear of any cloth made
beyond the sea - prohibited. From the
reign of Charles III. until recent period nc
one was permitted to be buried unless wrap
ped in a wooden shroud. The importation OF
even Irish wool was prohibited in 1896, and
the incorporation law, as to English wool,
was not repealed until 1894. The British
tariff on wool in modern times has been huc-
tuating. In 1919 it was raised to Cd.
penny per pound on wool costing shilling
or over per pound, and to a half peDnyon all
costing less but 1t admitted colonial wooi
free Prices fell, Southdown wool brought
/. Al Ia 1925, and only 6 d. in 1929. In
1874 it was provided that all woods should be
admitted free. Surely this is checkered
record of the road to free trade Very re-
Gently the increase in the production of wool
the world over has been prodigious. The
broad, upfenced plains of South America,
Africa, and Australia seem to have been
suddenly covered with focks of sheep in
untold numbers, and the chief expense of
raising wool is reduced almost to the bare
expense of washing and shearing the flocks,
and for even that some machinery is resorted
to- The quantity outstrips the present re-
quirements OF the world. Australia, accord
ing to NJ. Theirs in a recent speech, produced
last year $50 900 900 pounds, and could fur
nish 600 ,000, 900. La Plata could produce, he
says, a similar quantity. Commissioners
Wells says, The woods of the United States
are mainly the merino clothing woods,
which can be produced in any quantity and
at prices which defy foreign competition ;"
and he mentions Texas woods as having been
produced at a cost only off cents per pound.
which sold for IS cents in gold. The de-
fance is a very bold utterance, but one not
likely to find any hackers among wool grow
ers.
1t is possible that on the wide prairies of
the far West, and in California and Texas.
some fain. competition can be maintained
with countries having similar pasturage