Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-09-28
coRmEacIaL COMPLAINTS.
Complaints that are Needless Effect
of the New Tariff-Why Wool and
Woollens are Dull

The complaints of woolgrowers come
to us from various parties, representing
that the new tarilf is the author of their
woes and dali market. A considera-
tion of the subject involves many ele-
ments that are usually overlooked. In
the first place it is evident that no sys-
TEN of taxation will satisfy everybody.
Wool growergand woollen manufacturers
in this country complain that their in
terests are crippled and their profits re-
duced by the new tariff on wool and
woollens, adopted by the Forty-Seventh
Congress. How this can be we utterly
fail to perceive. While our woollen
manufacturers are complaining that
the reduction of the tariff has
injured them, their competitors
across the water, at Leeds, England,
inform the American Consul that the
new United States tariff has proved very
disastrous to their interests which are
the leading industries of that portion of
Great Britain, and they do not see how
they can evade the provisions of the law
and get an honest living.
1t certainly seems incomprehensible
how the American tariff, which levies a
tax on woollen goods and blankets,
valued at 30c per h., of ten cents per
lb., or about 30 per cent Of their value,
ruins the British manufacturer, when
last year he had to pay 20 cents pound
on the same kind of goods.
Of what stuff are the great woollen
manufacturers Of Leeds made Of, that
they complain that this reduction of ten
cents pound on the duty on their
goods is running their business and that
they "see no way of evading the law"
That shows it to be good law, by the
confession that it cannot be evaded. A
tariff of ten cents per pound seems to
catch all the shoddy on its merits and
no fancy advalorem avails the foreign
manufacturer. On the same kind of
goods valued al over thirty cents and
not over forty cents, the new tariff is
twelve cents pound, while the old was
twenty cents. On the same kind of
goods valued at over forty cents and not
over sixty cents, the new rate is eighteen
cents, while sthe old rate was thirty
cents per pound. On similar goods val
ued between sixty and eighty cents per
pound the new rate is twenty-four cents
per pound, while the old was forty cents.
On all over eighty cents per pound the
new rate is forty cents per pound, and
thirty-fiye cents advalorem, while the old
was fifty cents per pound. On woollen
clothing the old rate was fifty cents per
pound, while the new is forty cents
There was also an old alvalorem of forty
per cent. which is changed to thirty
five per cent. in the new.
If this reduction is ruinous to our
transatlantic neighbors, it must be be-
cause they cannot evade the provisions
of the law, and have to pay the duty.
But our own manufacturers have no duty
to pay, and profit guaranteed by the
tariff which their competitors have to
pay. Our woollen manufacturers on this
Coast appear to be doing well, but if
they can make money on this reduced
tariff why cannot The manufacturers on
the other side OF the Atlantic make
m ore under the new tariff than the old
1t looks strange that they should com
plain when their chances for making
money are improved. As wool is cheap
er now than it was last year, the con-
clusion is inevitable that the manufac-
turers of woollens on both sides of the
Atlantic are making money in moder-
ate way. But it will happen, from
time to time, that manufacturers
over produce their goods, and if they
do they ought to tell the truth and
not charge stagnation OF trade to the
tariff. The probability is that those
manufacturers who complain, have an
overproduction of goods on hand. Let
them wait for demand and not curse
the tariff. Our nation uses about six
pounds of wool per capita, and our peo-
pie are well dressed; but there is no use
to tinker the tariff to make them use up
ten mounds Of wool apiece annually.