New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-07-27
sion. So far they do not seem 10 have made
much progress.
THE ESSENCE OF The MILLS BILL.

THE ESSENCE or HE DiLLo DILL
| The best because the only complete, lllustra-
| ton of the purposes which have governed the
| President and the Democratic party in framing
and passing the Mills bill is its treatment OF
the duties ON wool and woollens The duties
Maid on all articles of this class in 1887 amount
cd 10 S35.629.534, the declared value Of all
sucb imports being $50, 586614, and the aver
age rate of duty nearly so per cent. But Dem
ocratic peryersions of the law in the interest
Of free trade ard hostile Treasury rulings in
spired by Free Traders and foreion importers,
have already opened the doors undcrvalua-
lions. both of wool and woollens, so great that
the actual value of imports was at least
$40. 900. 900, and the actual rate of duty paid
about SO per cent.
The pending bill proposes to take OIL the
duties entirely from raw wool, valued at
Sic, 351, $40 last year, and from shoddy, rags,
mungo and focks, and the many fraudulent
forms of manufacture included as waste of
which the value imported last year was
S1,S55,618. Thus $18,2O6, 9SS in declared
value of wool and waste" which paid last
year Sc, 800, 055 duties, would be admitted
free of duty, besides the vastly increased guam
titles and values which would be imported IN
consequence of the removal Of duty. Deduct
ing raw wool and waste" the declared value
of other manufactures of wool imported last
year was S42, 81 0626, on which the duty paid
was So o. 39,479, or nearly o per cent. Inc
pending bill proposes to reduce these duties TO
40 per cent ad valorem; that is, to cut OIL
three seventies of the existing protection be-
sides making fraudulent undervaluations easy
by the substitution of ad valorem for spechc
duties.
The excuse for this tremendous change in
the very basis upon which one OF the greatest
industries of the country has been built up, Is
that cheaper raw material would enable the
manufacturer to produce cheaper goods by at
least 30 per cent. This assertion is distinctly
made by the chief advocates of the bill. but
the same men actually have the hardwood 10
tell the wool-grow that removal OF duty
from wool would make that product command
higher price; that is, the cost OF the domestic
material would be increased to the manufact-
urer and not diminished 80 per cent. lie now
consumes about three pounds of domestic Tor
one pound of foreign wool if the three pounds
of domestic wool are to be dearer, the foreign
wool must be imported at less than no cost at
all in order to make the aggregate cost OF ma
terials 30 per cent lower, or else there must be
a great increase in the foreign and great de-
crease in the domestic wool consumed, which
necessarily means a decrease in the value OF
domestic wool and Of sheep.
At the very threshold, then, this bill appears
to be based upon false and fraudulent repre-
sentation, either to growers or to manufacturers
or to both. But the pretence that foreign wool
can be imported in greatly increased quantities
at 35 per cent less than current prices Is no
less fraudulent. Every practical dealer knows
that owing to enormous undervauations the
rate of duty paid is not now 30 per cent or even
30 Der cent of the actual cost. The removal OF
the duty will not reduce the cost to consumers
in this country 35 or even 30 per cent even if
there should be no advance abroad in conse-
auence Of the increase of imports. But sud-
den and remarkable advance would certainly
occur, as every practical dealer also knows.
Then, as domestic wool growers disappeared.
the foreign advance would be greater. The
pretence that the manufacturer would get
cheaper wool in the end is therefore as de-
ceptive and fraudulent as the pretence that the
wool grower would get better price for wool.
But, without the promised decrease in cost
of materials, the manufacturer must face re-
duction of three-sevenths in the rate OF duty
by which thus far its industry has been but
scantily protected. At existing rates many
hundred woollen manufacturing establishments
are idle. The proposed change would simply
close up thousands of them