Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-04-27
SPEECH OF H0N. ]. 7. UPDEGRAFF

the wool product OF the country had
increased but 40 per cent, while the last
animal product is 400 per cent. greater
than twenty years before. The i'm
provement in the wool-producing quail
ty of the sheep is shown by the fact
that while their number has not been
doubled the yield of wool is four and a
half times the former amount. The ter
ritOry of the United States, extending
acrUss a continent, abouHds il OppOrtu-
ties for the adjustment of occupations
mot only to the conditions of the market
| but to the climate and soil for the varie-
ties of production.
The farmers at great sacrifice have
learned that wool of all descriptions
cannot be grown on all soils and in every
latitude. But we have a large extent
of territory especially adapted by pecu-
| liarities of water, soil, climate, and pas
turage to the production of the very
best qualities of wool grown in the
world. With past experience and under
the influence of the tariff of 1867, wool
growing has taken its place among the
most substantial and best conducted in
dustries of the country. The annual
wool product Of the whole world, by re-
cent German estimates, is placed at
| 4 $4,000. 900 pounds, so that our produc
tion is only one-sixth of the whole total.
Australia, with one. sixteenth of our
population, produces about the same
amount of wool, nine. tenths of which
is exported. If our country was flooded
with this, duty free, as Mr.. Hewitt pro-
poses, it would for the time destroy
sheep-raIsing in the United States.
| American clothing-wool is protected
under the "wool tariff of 1867, as it is
called, by duty on such as is valued at
80 cents or less per pound of 10 cents per
pound and II per cent. ad valorem; OF
the value over 80 cents per pound, II
cents per pound and 10 per cent. ad
yaIorem. This duty was the result OF
mutual agreement between the wool
growers and wool-manufactnrers of the
! United States, who met in convention at
Syracuse, New York, December 43, 1865.
For the first time these. interests met
! in council for mutual benefit. Up to
! that time wide differences of opinion
had existed between these two Industrial
classes as to the respective duties which
should be leyied on imported wool and
manufactured woolens. The basis of
that agreement, enacted by the tariff of
1867, has been in operation from that
time. The wonderful growth of both
our wool-growing and wool-manufactur-
ing industries under its operation are
evidences of its wisdom. The table OF
wooden manufactures, furnished me by
the Superintendent of the Census, shows
the vast extent of this branch of bnsi-
ness in 1880. 1t is no longer confined to
| the East. In the nine Western and
Northwestern States of Ohio, Indiana,
Illineis, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mis-
souri, Wisconsin, and Minnesota there
are now no less than 355 WOODEN mills in
operation, 81 being in the State of OHIO
The woolen manufactures of the United
States. as shown by the table, employ
161,2s7 workmen, and paid in wages for
the year 1880, $47,244,736, and made a
total manufactured product of 1896, 1885,
t454.
Notwithstanding the great increase of
our production of wool during the last
tdecade the amount imported has v7tfftd
from 43,000,000 to 12s,131,747 pounds, the
latter being our import for 1880. At the
present rate of increase the United
States may soon produce its eutire sup
ply of wool. And though the prices of
labor and the cost of living have been
enhanced, both wool and homemade
woolens, quality for quality, are cheaper
than in 1860. But it is not claimed that
the protection on wool cheapens it as
result under all circumstances. In man
ufactured articles the constant improve
ment in machinery and processes, the
of MI fn in hNyc h.r
competition has constantly produc
that effect. In wool-growing the same
law does not operate. 1t is a question of
land and labor. Protection is a just
assurance to that great agricultural in
terest of some stability in that industry
by taxing the free importation of for
eign woods grown under circumstances
against which American wool cannot
compete. The duty on wool is part OF
the great system of protection which
favols the product of our own labor,
whether it be in the mine, the factory,
the furnace, Or on the farm. Every
manner of industry which has in it
single day of American labor is entitled
to be preferred to the famine-fare. and
pauper-gage labor of other countries
under that system which our fathers
named the American SYSTEM" Free
trade theorists are fond of saying, as
Mr.. Mongredien does, to the American
farmer that he receives no protection.
On the farmer the free-trader makes his
most pathetic point. But here is one of
the widest, most important, and most
rapidly increasing branches of agricul-
ture justly sharing, as its other interests
do, the protecting, developing care of
the Government. ~.
The QUESTION is constantly asked,
Why shall American wool be. protected
when it can be produced in the United
States under many favorable circum-
stances? Ianswer IN the first place, be-
cause protection is "a system" which
takes in its wide embrace all forms of
home labor, and aims to encourage and
develop all our resources. l answer sec
ondly, because no one of our agricaltu-
raj industries is more important in its
relation not only to the vast army of
producers, bat also in its value to the
country as an enriching force, because
in many sections it adds vast wealth to
regions by utilizing rough pasturage un-
tit for cultivation. l answer thirdly, be-
cause it is of vast value in enriching our
soil, while constant crops and exporta-
tion rapidly impoverish it. Skillful or
even safe husbandry requires that more
shall be annually given to the soil than
is taken from it. This is impossible
where crops so exhausting as cereals
are grown mainly for foreign market
and consumed on another continent. 1t
is estimated by high authority that
the total annual waste to the soil of the
country by its crops alone is equal to
the mineral constituents of fifteen hun=
dred million bushels of corn. With our
earth-butchery and prodigality of our
virgin soil. we are rapidly consuming
the elements of our vitality. Such i'm
providence will not permit us long to
be prosperous Sheep husbandry is con-
tinuous fertilization. Crop expectation
is earth butchery Thus this business