The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-07-07
IC.D.T For example, " flax hemp, wood

y. -. i. FOR example, unA, homP' "oN'
wool, potatoes. and other edibles
What he means by" wood" Is probably
lumbe and II there Is farmer In Illinois
or any where In the great and mighty ives
outside Of a lunatic asylum, who Is no
conscious of the gross stupidity, Injustice
and outrage of the lumber tax he Is worse
than 20 be pitied-he Is 10 be despised
We should scoru to argue with him.
But, then, there is wool. The Mills bill
would also remove the tax on wool, says G
DIT. A carefully prepared table before
US from the Hartford Times reveals some
things about the tariff on wool al which
even C. D. T. may be surprised.
From 1929 to 1882 the tax on wool was 6
cts. per h., and As per cent. and the aver
age market price for 3 years was 6l2s cts
In 1884 the tariff was reduced 10 pei
cent, In 1887 again 10 per cent, and IL
1910, 20 cent.,-every reduction rails
Ing the price If wool until 1t went up &c
20 cts.
In 1912 the tariff was raised and prices
AZ once declined; In 1916 tariff reduced
and prices rose, so that up to 1861 they
averaged As cts. per ID.
During the war, on account of the de-
probation of greenbacks, prices went up
as high as 70 cts, but since then, with
steadily increasing tariff, the price of wool
has gone down so that the average of the
ten wears from 1872 to 1882 was Al cts,
and from 1888 to 1887 it has been but 3319
cts, the lowest price In our history.
At this rate, 1t needs piling on of duties
but few years longer TO run the great
wool. growing industry entirely into the
ground.
The truth Is, every increase Of tax on
wool 10 that extent cripples the manufac.
ture of wooden goods and cuts down the
demand. The only way 10 raise the price
of an article is to increase the demand for
II. and 10 increase the demand for wool Is
10 duplicate and Quadruplicate the number
of our wooden mills, which as the Hazards,
Harrises, and all the other wool manufac-
turing lords of New England themselves
admit can only be done by giving them
free wool.
And there is flax, says c. D. T. Does
he know anything about flax? In 1870
the census figures place the production of
flax fibre in this country at 27l33,034 tons,
the duty then being $l5 per ton; in 1870
the duty was increased to $50 per ton, and
in 1880 this increased protection" gives
us the astounding result of reduction of
the product to 1864 tons! G. ID. T.
would probably add $40 more per ton as
protection" and thus wipe out the growth
of flax Gibre entirely. II is but repetition
of the wool history. Every additional tax
on the raw material discouraged the manu-.
facture, so that the linen industry of this
country, twenty years so promising, is to-
day pretty efectually protected out of ex-
istence, as our wooden mills are also being
rapidly" protected"
The line of argument need be pursued
no further II is no use, Mr., c. d. T. No
process of twisting, squirming, false rea.
soning or perversionsof facts and figures can
ever do away with the one plain, simple,
solemn truth: That all taxes, however
laid, and under what specious pretext so
ever, are burdens on industry, and this and
no other country can ever get rich by in.
creasing and multiplying such burdens