Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-07-02
THE WOOL TARIFF.

House Committee on Ways and Means
The Majority in Favor OF the Abolition
of Dnty-A High Tax Advocated by the
Minority.
WASHINGTON, June 17.-In reporting adj
versely to the House Representative Gros-
venor's resolution providingiorth the restor'
alton of the tariff OF 1867 upon wool, the
Committee on Ways and Means submits
that the duty upon the imported wool ls
proved by testimony derived from both
argument and experience to be injurious
to all classes and beneficial to none. The
report says:
lit driy from our markets many kinds
of wool not raised Lere, but Indispensable
to the successful manufacture OF WOODEN
goods. 1t gives the European mana
f%acturer the exclusive use OF these woods,
made of them, and consequently OF
the markets of the world. 1t con-
fines American manufacturers to O re-
stricted choice Of materials and SO to the
production of q limited class OF goods
with which the home markets. periodically
glutted. 1t makes it impossible for our
manufacturers to export WOODEN goods,
and by contining them to the home market
leads to ruinous fluctuations in prices, re,
sulting in q frequent closing OF mills n
prevents the home manufacturer
which could be used in mixture
with American woods, and thus lessons the
demands for American woods instead OF IN
creasing it as intended. 1t gives the Eu-
ropean manufacturer control of all foreign
woods. 1t tlrls causes the Importation OF
foreign wool to come in a manufactured
form, and the more the duty has been raised
the more disastrous has been the result to
the American wool-grOwer.
1T has furnished q good excuse for
heaping heavy taxes upon the clothing OF
the people and it has taken from the wool
grower an amount far exceeding m ben
eft which he might have imagined he
would derive from the tariff without Civ
duced the wages of the w~orking-men in the
wooden manufacturing; it has ruined in
vestors who were entieed into
this manufacture by the deiu.
siye promise of a high tariff;
it has greatly hindered our trade with our
natural customers in South America; it has
made clothing dearer in America and
cheaper in Europe; it hasi injured all classes
and helped none.
The committee, therefore, recommend
that the resolution lie on the table, but
that the prayer of the textile workers in
P!hi1adelphia should be granted; that the
dutios on wool should be repealed and the
| duties on wooden manufactures be reduced
TO at least az equal extent"
Representative Mckinley, OF Ohio, on
behalf OF the minority OF the Committee
ON Ways and Means submitted a
report or the "wool" resolution reported
adversely by that committee. The minor
ity report says: 1.-The majority report,
while ostenslbly made upon the res
o@lution, is, in fact, a supplemental
report OF the general Tariff bill,
and evidently intended as a defense for the
action OF the committee in proposing to
,>1Nno 1roo1 ,,~~,, 4lo f,o> l.o{ ~ MI, ~:
noritv goes into an exhaustive argument
bristling with figures to demonstrate tlnt
the growth and development OF agriculture
have not been INSTRUCTED by protective
tariffs, and the report then continues:
$50 long as American protective tariffs
operate to foster and cherish American
enterprises which are enabled to provide
profitable employment to American labor
SO long should American tariffs be upheld
ind defended, whether assaulted from in
tlnences at home or influences abroad.
We can not be healthy and Wig
orous as a nation if the source of
power-the peoples disconnected, ill-fed,
ill-paid, and without the comforts and de-
prived of the healtbful conditions which
should be enjoyed by political equals.
'It is not a question simply of whether
we shall clothe ourselves III cloths manu-
featured from American woods, or in
cloths fabricated from Australian woods,
but how will the nation at large and the
individual citiz en- be affected by the pol
icy which makes the latter necessary, if
not inevitable. 1t is not the narrow ques-
ton of the cost Of the clothes we wear,
or the food we eat, or the lumber which
gives shelter to our homes, but what
will be the general effect of such reduced
cost and all which must follow ii
upon our citizenship and ultimately its
influence upon the strength and character
Of our institutions. 1t is a broader ques
ton than the price of the domestic or the
foreign product, and, while the former
may in some instances cost a little more
than the latter, it is of little significance
when measured by the comforts and ad
vantages of the masses of our country
which can not be secured without the
maintenance of an American policy which
this proposed legislation is intended tt
overthrow.
In some departments of industry the cos
of production in this country is greater
than that of any other, and to remove the
protection which we secure by our tariff
will either surrender our market in thost
departments to our foreign competitors
ish the cost of the competing products.
Our duty therefore is not limited to the
mere question of dollars and cents, but i
is deeper and more far-leaching. 1t relate
to the power and capacity of the people tt
perform their exalted political trusts
nations. This is a nation of citizens, no
subjects. Whatever therefore will secure
to the laboring masses their full share il
joint profits of capital and labor, promote
the highest intelligence and largest indie
pendence, should be adopted and becom
permanently a part of our national policy
Severe Earthquake in Nicaragua.
ALBANY, N. Y, June 17.-Mr. job
HnfchEiso. a rrornipont nop,,f,of,ro n