Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-09-08
BENEFITS OF FREE WOOL.
A Prominent Manufactures Who Knows
the Facts of the Case.
u,f pe,,fs,, TO-

A Prominent Manufacturer Who Knows
| the Facts of the Case.
| Hdt Revieg for August.
Mr.. E. G. Sanford, of the firm of Glover
Sanford & Sons, the prominent wool hat
manufacturers of Bridgeport, Conn, made
the following address at meeting held in
that city on the evening of August 8, as
reported in the Bridgeport EueRiRg Farmer:
To-day, said Mr.. Sanford, we make
more than we consume. Our home mar
ket cannot buy all the goods we can make
when we are running the year round on
full time, and the result is that part Of
the time our factory is closed and our
labor idle, To-day we cannot sell to other
countries because they can outsell us, not
because their goods are better made or
their labor more efficient, but simply and
solely because they can get free wool, and
We have to pay an excessive duty upon
wool.
''The capacity of our mill is from 5000
to 5000 pounds of wool per day, and the
cOst OF the same at Cape Town is about
5000. The duty adds to its cost about
$500, making the duty each week the fac
tory runs up to its full capacity over 3d.
600. Consequently they had to pay each
week to q government which did not need
it and did not ask it, the sum Of $1,000
This was direct burden upon their bust
ness. Remove it and let them buy their
wool as cheaply as the English manufae-
turer and they would take his markets
away, build up foreign trade, give steady
employment to their labor, and year
through run on full time and give their
employees 800 days work in the year.
''This would be blessing to all parties
in interest, as the more they sold the
more they made. 1t would be blessing
to their labor, for the more days they
worked the greater their annual earning.
1t would be blessing to the consumer by
giving cheaper product, free wool and
dyestuffs, meant a cheaper hat. The wool
we raise in this country is only 265, 600, 900
pounds; the wool We use is 600, 600, 900
pounds. Why make us pay heavy duty
on 600, 900, 900 pounds OF wool when we
raise less than half of this amount in this
country
1.-The wool we raise is not suitable for
feltipg wool hats, the wool needed for that
being foreign wool, of a grade and kind
we do not raise Can we raise il? Posi-
bly,, but it'a about as sensible to try it as
it wonld to raise bananas and elephants
here. All this has been done, but neither
can be done successfully, that is, with
profit.
"In my own business before the war we
got ST dozen profit on hats. Now You
can have the capacity of our whole factory
at one cent hat. We took to making
Scotch hats year ago at seventy-five cents
profit per dozen. To-day we get ten cents
per dozen. Will some one say the Mills
bill did this?
Before the war our business was never
so prosperous as under the twenty per
per cent. duty. Since 1873, under an ex-
csssive duty, the business has steadily
diminished. Since 1876 we have not been |
able to expert hat because we cannot get
free wool. 1t is my judgment and belief
that with the raw materials which enters
into our manufacturing in nearly all our |
industries we can successfully compete |
with any country on the face of the earth. |
why not? Our machinery is better,
our labor is better, quicker and more lu-
telligent, and harder working during the |
hours of work, As Senator Frye substan- !
TALLY said in his Home Market speech, no
foreign labor can compete with ours in in
telligence and efficiency
why should we build wall about this |
country and trade only with ourselves?
Az well say build wall about our State or |
our town, and trade only with ourselves. |
To make money by trade, it must be be-
tween at least two persons. Ii we shut |
ourselves up, aud refuse to buy Of other
countries, it is clear that they cannot buy |
of Us. What advantage can result from
this policy? AS an cid Connecticut farmer
said, IF you build wall about town
that raises nothing bat tobacco and stop |
the trade between the Inhabitants OF this
walled town and it's neighbors, there is
nothing left for the people in the town to
Go but 'chaw' Just as long as we fool |
ishly keep out raw materials, we too have |
to do good deal of chawing The tariff
cauuot raise wages; they depend on the Law
of supply and demand. In my business |
say again free wool would help me, help
the wages of our employees, and give every |
one that USES wool hats q cheaper hat.
at is thought by some that free wool
would ruin the Ohio farmer. / do not
think so. / believe that free wool would |
largely increase our manufactured product
and extend our markets, since much and
most of our American wool is used by
mixing with foreiga wool. The resulting
increase in orr business would increase the
demand for American wool, and in the
sud, by 1890, if the Mills bill pass and
wool be free, this increased demand for his
wool will increase our home consumption
and raise the price of wool. But if this
comes then the American manufacturer
will be placed on q par with the msnutsc-
turers Of the world. He, like them, will
get his raw material free. Standing on an
equal footing, he need fear no one. All he
wants, all want, il an equal chance TO
compete, and we'll beat the world"