Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-04-08

think discretion would advise its non -presenta-
tion. In his last article, be credits the impor-
tations of 1883, under the tariff of 1883, which
he surely knows was not enacted until near the
close of the statistical year of 1888, and could
not be included as imports under the present
tariff.
The reports of the secretary of the treasury
show that there was imported for the year end
ing June Both, 1883, 53,OOO,OOO pounds of wool,
under the old tariff, and for the year ending
June Both, 1884. s7,7OO 900 pounds under the
new, which shows the imports increased 65 per
cent, and the duties collected AZ per cent.
Mr.. Brown denies that reduction of a few
cents per pound has anything to do with the
depression on wool. If he had grain field
and pasture field adjoining, with a fence just
sufficient to keep cattle from getting into the
grain, and some one was to let down one or two
rails, the grain would be as effectually destroy
ed as though it was let entirely down.
By competition among ourselves wool had
gotten very nearly to the importing point. and
the reduction of or 4 cts. per pound lat cheap
foreign wool food the market
The wOol-growers ask that those one or two
rails be laid up; or, in other words, a resolu-
tion of restoration of the tariff of 1861, or its
equivalent. Not in a spirit of selfish men, but
that the people of the whole country may be
benefited, and that the United States NAV be
inde pendent of foreign nations in times OF
peace or war.
Mr.. Brown says that wool, iron-ore, stone,
lumber and many other unmanufactured articles
are all raw material and adds that President
Rice and Secretary Manning make the same
statement. He might also have added that a
large number of the most prominent wooden
manufacturers are advocating free raw mater
ial.' | refer him to the statement of Charles
N. Beach, treasurer of the Home wooden mills,
Hartford, Conn, before the committee of ways
and means of congress, in which he said: 10
my mind it is clear that wool and other raw
materials should be free of duty" Other man.
ufacturers said the same thing; and in Novem-
Der, 1884, the Dry Goods Bulletin, of New
York, said that manufacturers could not longer
prosper in this country without "free raw ma
terisl." Thus we find certain class of man
utacturers and prOtectionsts combining with
the free traders in advocating ''free raw ma
terial;" or in other words, they are trying to
destroy the very cornerstone OF the American
system of protection.
Now, what is raw material? Webster de-
fines the word as Something not altered from
it's natural state" Hence, raw material is any
product stored by nature, or obtained by hu-
man agency. Thus, ore in the hill, stone in
quarry, OF trees in the forest, is raw material;
but in this state they are of no value to the
wants of man, not until human agency inter-
venes By the use Of the pick, hammer and
al nd fha = tran faA TO tha
mace and iron the result. The same may he
said of stone in the quarry or trees in the
forest, &c. These values are created by labor
and capital, directed by skillful hands and
brains.
Mr.. Brown says: "The labor in producing
the most of manufactured articles is from IS
to 80 per cent, and it is admitted by all that
labor should be protected, and that raw ma
terial' should not be taxed equal to finished
product"
would ask, is labor at the loom or forge
any more sacred than labor in the mine or on
the farm? or why is the result of farm labor
raw material anym ore than the results of fac
tory labor? If Mr.. Brown had u flock of sheep
that cost nothing for their original purchase
feed, care, housing or shearing, and shed its
heeces for him each year, he might we'll call it
raw material. But wool is not thus obtained
in the United States. In its production is
employed more than S500,000,000 of capital
and more than 1000. 900 laborers; and thous-
ands of the most intelligent men have employ
ed the best energies of life and brain in pro-
ducng and pertecting the sheep and wool of
to-day.
The census of 1880 shows 16I ,537 persons
engaged in wooden manufactures, OF whom 90,
000 are women and children, or more than
twelve times as many persons engaged in pro-
ducing wool are engaged in its manufacture.
Now, there is a sense in which unfinished
products are the material of the next
higher transformation. Thus, iron-ore is the
''raw material" Of the iron commerce; the iron
commerce is the "raw material of watch
spring, etc.
Air, heat, sunshine and rain and the elements
of the soil are sformed into grain and grass
and hay, are their finished products" and
these are the "raw MATERIAL of wool, and wool
is the ''raw material of yarn, and yarn il the
'raw material" of the web,, and the wed in the
hands of the dyer and inisher, and the cloth is
the ''raw material in the hands of the tailor.
Thus we see wool is finished product in the
hands of the growers the same that the yarn,
the web, the cloth and the garment, are all
finished products in their different stages of
transformation.
He says that the agitation of the question is
most injurious to the country, and that congress
is daily pressed with protests and remOnstran-
ees against any change or agitation OF the
tariff. If he had said the protest and remon-
strances were in opposition to any reduction
of the tariff, he would have stated the matter
correctly ,and that the wool-growers should take
what congress sees fit to give them and be con-
tent. Does he not know that the wool-growers
constitute at least one-ffth of the voters of the
country, and by combining with friendly man
ufacturers and other industries that are pro-
ducing what he terms "raw material?" We
can compel congress to give each and every
industry, needing it, proper protection, so that
capital may receive reasonable return, and
labor just compensation.
Nlw ATHENS, April 3, Sc. A. ". LEE.