Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-11
SATURDAY, AUGUST II, 1855.
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL TICKET.
FOR PRESIDENT
GROVER CLEVELAND,Of of New YOrk
FOR vICE-PRESIDENT-
ALLEN G.. THURMAN. of Ohio.
To enforce trucality in public e.rpendi-
tures and abolish unnecessary taratiOn.
FOR CONGRESS, SIXTH DISTRICT
REEL b. TERRY, OF Fresno.
The Facts About Wool.

The Facts About Wool.
There has been a great deal of rot in
the Republican journals of California,
about protecting our wool interests. Mr..
John H. Wise, Democrat, and one of
the leading wool merchants of California,
has placed himself on record to the effect
that the admission of the long stapled
woods of Australia into the United States
free of duty, will stimulate our wool in
terests, because if they can be obtained
cheaply they will make market for our
short stapled woods for purposes of ad-
mixture by the manufacturer. AS a
matter of fact, wool has been steadily
declining in price under high
protective tariff. Mr.. Rowland Hazard,
a wool manufacturer of Rhode Island,
has given the public the benefit of his
exhaustive inquiry as to the effect of the
high tariff on the wool industry. He has
found that for the four years, 1857 to
1860, inclusive, we had practical free
trade in wool. In one of these years,
1859, wool was as high as it was in any
year of the previous ten (1S47 to 1850,
and the average price of the four years of
free wool is higher than for any consecu-
tive four years of the previous ten.
After these four years of free wool,
lower prices prevailed under all stages of
the tariff until 1871 and 1872, which two
years average the same as 1859. Since
1872, with only slight changes in the
tariff, and with very high duties, con-
tinuously maintained, we have had lower
prices than we had under no tariff tax in
1S57-1S60. 1t is plain that farmers can
not rely on the tariff to ensure them
high prices for wool.
The story which the statistics tell Of
the sheep is perhaps the most instructive
and the most remarkable. Up to 1867,
when the tariff was passed to encourage
wool growing, the number of sheep re-
ported by the Agricultural Department
was increasing year by year. In the
eight principal wool growing States
Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New
York, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and
Iowa-there were in 1856, 26,800, 900
sheep. In 1867 there were nearly &c..
600, 900 in these same States. In 1877,
after ten years of protection, there were
less than Is 100000. In the States east
of the Mississippi river there were less
than one-half as many sheep in 1873 as
there were in 1867.
During the same time Texas and Cali
fornia largely increased their focks.
From less than q million in 1867 they
rose to II SOC, 900 in 1879, but this enor-
NOUS increase left the total number of
sheep in the United States less in 1S7 9
than it was in 1867. In 1867 there were
about SO, 1900, 900, and in 1879 there were
80, 100 900. Since 1879 the number has
gradually increased. In the Census year,
1880, 100000 are reported, and in
January, 1888, there were 49,200, 900.
(In 1887 there were reported by the Com
missioner of Agriculture, 44,759, ,314. }
But the fact remains, that for twelve
years after the high protection tariff Of
1867 was passed, there was no general
increase in sheep husbandry. During
those twelve years the new and cheap
lands of Texas and California were
opened up, lands whose rcost profitable
use was sheep farming, and but for this
addition, which cannot be ascribed to the
tariff, the number of sheep would have
decreased in the most serious manner.
Besides, the estimates of the wool clips
for the several years under consideration
made by James Lynch, Esq, of New
York, the first authority on this subject
confirm the fact that there was an actual
falling off in the product of wool. He
reports the total wool clip of 1868 at
III ,0O0, 900 pounds. There was an i'm.
mediate decrease, and this figure was
not again reached till 1874. The falling
off in fleece and tub wool. most of which
was produced east of the Mississippi, was
more marked, as in this section there
was the largest decrease in sheep. In
1868, this wool was 150, 900 600 pounds.
II went down to 12O, O,O00, 900 in 1874,
III, ,0o0, 900 in 1875, liz, 500, 900 in 1875,