The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-07-12
Dubious Protection.

lDtpthsfh NtiAuh-I
The depression in the wooden in
dustry of New England seems to
have touched a lower point than at
any time since 1875. The wooden
mills of the New England states are
to be found chiefly in Massachusetts,,
Rhode Island and Connecticut. Of
the total of 1922 sets of cards re-
ported in New England by last
census returns, 2223 are in these
three states. Inquiries made by the
Boston Advertiser show that 673, or
about a third of these, have been
shut down. In these three states
alone the Quitting of the market
with wooden goods involves a reduc-
ton of 100000 pounds per day, or
some 100000 pounds every four
weeks in the consumption of
wool. As these three states
turn out rather less than one
half of the annual production of wool
fabrics in the country, it is entirely
within the mark to conclude that the
wooden mills of the United States are
at present using 100000 pounds per
month less than their capacity. The
average earnings of wooden opera
tlves in New England is about $500
year; in the West they they do not
exceed $3.50. By the extensive stop
page of machinery caused by t1e
| oVer-stocked condition of the market,
| the working people are obviously the
| chief sufferers. BY whatever means
the manufacturer may be able to re-
coup his losses ~there is no kind of
ingenuity that will enable a work.
| ing man OF woman to recover days
wages that has been lost.
How little the reduction on the
wool duties has to do with the pres
ent condition of the trade may ,e in
ferred from the statement of the Ohio
Democratic platform that 1.-The act of
/ the Republican congress reducing the
tariff on wool, while at the same time
increasing it on wooden goods, already
highly protected, was iniquitous leg
islation, discriminating in favor of
monopoly and against the agricultural
interests of the country" Though
the revised tariff has not yet become
operative, it is not pretended that
wooden factories have shut down pend
ing the admission of cheaper foreign
wool or because. Cf the unusual
amount of foreign fabrics competing
in our own market with the
products of native industry. We
have simply gone through
the constantly recurring period of
UVer-Stimulated manufacture and
have reached the inevitable time OF
reaction. Laborer, wool grower and
manufacturer suffer alike from such
Il process, the first most Of all But
as it is American labor. which both
political parties profess to be most
anxious to protect, would it not be
well to inquire whether the case OF
the wooden industry may not be typi-
Cal Of the success of any system OF
import duties in making the lot of the
working man more tOlerable?
The annual value of the wool pro,
ducts of the country for the census
year 1880 was Sal OBJ, 045; the value OF
our exports of domestic Woolens
during the last fiscal year was about
$500, 1000, or about B per cent. of the
value of the manufactured woolens
sent by Great Britain to China alone
not one of the most considerable OF
her customers, though capable of be.
ing made one Of the most desirable
of ours. We tax the raw
material of this industry in a way
that protects nobody. 1t keeps out
foreign woods that we needed to mix
with our native fieeces, and, by re
stricting the variety of fabrics which
can be made here, it limits the demand
for American wool. 1t raises the price
of the manufactured article, and, il
common with the ingenious system
of reduplicated ,iuties, of which it is
part, it prevents the competition Of
American Woolens in the markets OF
the world. For our surplus product
we have no GU let, and yet for oul
own consumption we cannot supply
the finest kinds of cloth. HemmeC
in on every side by the restrictions
they have contriyed for our own ''pro
lection" the case of the wooden man
ufacturers is an excellent illustration
of how little import duties can help
in the promotion of trade