St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-08

tective bounties, duty on wool could not be
duty on woolen goods, into which wool enter
ed as large part of its manufacture. A bill
has been reported to the house on the genera
subject of the tariff, as well as on the rate on
wool and woolen goods. He would ask the
house on Thursday night to take up that bill,
and consider the wool question among others.
He yielded the remainder of his time to Mr..
question" Laughter
Mr.. Hurd said, he opposed this motion, be-
cause it proposed to restore the duty on
wool, and thereby increase its price. 1t did
so directly, by increasing the price of the
foreign wool required in domestic manu-
factures. The question thus plainly pre-
sented was, ought the price of wool to be in
creased by legislation! There were three
classe<interested in the answer to that ques-
ton. First, those who consumed the articles
made from wool; second, those who manu-
factured woolen goods, and, third, those who
produced the raw wool itself. The manifest
effect on the first class would be to increase
the price of woolen goods, for the price of the
material of which an article was made could
not be increased without increasing the
price of the article itself Ought the price
that question there ought to be
but one answer. At all times and in all cir
cumstances in our nothern climate, wool was
an indispensable article of daily consump-
ton. 1t was shelter to the houseless, cover
ing to the shivering, and fuel when the light
of the fire was eXtinguished. To working
men, artisans and mechanics labor without
the protection of wooden clothing would be
insufferable, and their condition miserable
indeed. If these remarks were true ordinari-
ly, how painfully true now. This had been a
winter of unexampled severity. More than
half million men were out of employment,
and strong men everywhere were seeing
their families starving because they could
not get the work they were anxious
to do. Had the house of representa-
tives nothing more to say than this that
! the necessaries of life should be increased in
prices, the very proposition mocking their
misfortunes. To pass this bill, would be to
do an unforgivable wrong to the millions.
| 1t was not an auspicious time to make
clothing dearer to the poor. If bounties
were needed for any industry, in Gods
name, take them out of the overaowing
treasury, not out of the suffering poor.
J TApplausel. What effect would it have on
the manufacturing INTEREST," That interest
everywhere was in state of depression,
many mill owners had gone into insolvency,
many had reduced the hours of labor, many
had shut down for time, few were running
all the time and to the full extent OF
their capacity. In the midst OF this depres-
sion, did the house propose to add to
their burdens by increasing the price OF
raw materials. One of the chief causes OF
the present depression was the high price on
foreign wool. To-day, even as the law stood,
the price of foreign wool to American manu-
facturers was nearly 60 per cent higher than
it was at the port of shipment. In American
mills 300, 900, 900 pounds of wool were used
in 1880; of this 75,000,000 pounds were i'm
ported There was enough power in the
mills to produce nearly twice as much as they
did. The American mills could manufacture
600, 900, 900 pounds annually. The high duty
prevented the manufacturer from getting the
wool they were requiring to have in order to
| make up fti, the deficiency of the lsoUe pro-
duction, and by this very tariff he was kept
| from the markets of the world. England sold
abroad S120, 600, 600 worth of woolen goods
annually. America sold abroad scarcely
| $4OO, 900 worth. Pass this bill, and increase
the price of foreign WOOL and the house
would add to the embarrassment of every
wooden manufacturer and compel further
reduction of wages and lock still more
tightly against him the markets of the world.
This was attempted to be justified on the
! ground that the American farmer would get
better price for his wool. This he denied.
What was the market for the farmer? No
man bought wool and brought it to his own
house and made his own clothes. 1t was the
American manufacturer who created the
market, and just as he prospered
or was depressed was the price
of wool high or low. Applause. 1t was
natural that men in prosperity shonld pay
better prices than men whom adversely had
overtaken. He, Hurd, charged that the low
price of American wool was largely attribu-
table to the high price of foreign wool. There
were three grades of wool in the Market su-
perfine, intermediary and carpet. OF these
America did not produce the superfine or
carpet woods, and therefore no duty on them
would be of benefit to any farmer. As to
the intermediary grade this was the situation.
The woods of foreign countries had texture
and fibre which the American wool did not
possess, and the American manufacturer
needed them to mix with
the American wool. No man
Il -, Il
from American wool. Only let foreign wool
in free, or reduce the duty and more foreign
would be imported, and that would make a
greater demand for American wool. Every
pound of intermediate wool imported would
make more available every pound raised here.
Foreign wool did not come into competition
with American wool. but was supplemented
to its efficiency. From 1S47 to 1860, the
farmers got five cents per pound more than
they did during the period of the high pro-
tective tariff. In England, when its PROPOSE
ton was made to take the duty off
wool, it was antagonized by the wool
growers but the result had been could
the price of wool had steadily advanced. He
believed, if wool were put on the free list to-
day, with corresponding reduction in the
duty on woolen goods, the result would be a
large increase of manufactures, large i'm
crease in the number of operatives employed,
at least ten per cent. increase in the price
paid the farmer, and reduction of twenty
five per cent to people who had to buy wool
en- goods. He had been requested by the
legislature of Ohio to vote to restore the duty
on wool. He had respect for the Ohio legis-
lature as body and for its individual mem
bers, but he would not vote to make woolen
clothing dearer to the laboring population of
the country, if every Democratin in Ohio asked
him to do so. Loud applause on the Demo-
cratic side.] In conclusion he said: Woe
to the party who proposes to obtain power by
making the expenses of living heavier and
the struggle still harder to those vino can
scarcely carry it on now. The path to victory