Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-07-18
The WeoI Question.

A great deal of the tariff discussion Of
the present day is about wool. That article
| is perhaps more prominent than any other
| in the movement to modify the tariff, the
Democratic proposition being to put it on
the free list. 1t is what is known as raw
material. and the President made the i'm
portation of wool, without duty, the
salient point of his address to Congress-.
showing conclusively that 1t is to the inter.
est of the people of this country that wool
shall be free, and among the people to be
benefited are the small wool-growers,-
What is known as the Wool Growers Asso.
citation opposes this move, as it might be
expected to do, being controlled by the
rich and large growers.
Now take square look at the question
with us for few moments, and let us see
if wool should be free. Here is a mill in
Massachusetts making woollen goods. and
there is one in Lancashire, England. max
ing precisely the same thing. Here is a
big ranchman in Texas or California with
a lot of Mexicans or cowboys herding his
sheep. There are plenty of the same kind
of wool-raisers in Australia herding their
sheep. Here are many millions of people
in the United States who have to buy and
wear woollen goods. 1t costs the mill man
in Massachusetts, 70 cents per pound to get
his wool, whether he imports it or buys it
in the United States, on account of the
tariff on wool. 1t costs the mill man in
Lancashire 80 cents per pound for his wool,
which he can buy in unlimited quantity in
Australia. The Englishman has no tariff
to pay. For all items that 60 to make the
cloth, including the labor, the cost is to
the American mill 80 and 31-100th cents a
pound, while the cost to the Englishman is
nearly 38 cents per pound-a difference of
little over cents in favor of the Ameri-
can mill. The labor in each case is just
about the same, no real advantage being
enjoyed by either over the other. These
figures are the result of careful and pains
taking investigation, and analysis made by
United States Consul Schoenhof from the
records of representative American and
English mill and published a few weeks
ago. So, it can be seen at a glance that il
there were no tariff on wool the American
mill could make cloth for 64.31 cents as
against 1890 cents, the cost to the English
mill, and consequently, the price to the
consumer in the United States would be re-
duced just exactly the amount of the tariff,
and the American mills could supply
foreign markets with cloth at lower price
duction is now lower here than abroad, not.
withstanding the false claim that more is
paid here for wages than in foreign mills.
The enhanced prices on woollen goods,
caused by the tariff. are, ON working suits
of clothes costing ST. a tariff bounty to the
manufacturer of 1927; on q better suit,
costing $50, the tariff is $6.4S; overcoat
costing $15, bounty $4.85 flannel shirts
and drawers, 80 cents each bounty and so
on through the list.
In the light of this statement which is
based upon the absolute facts of the case,
what interest have the American people as
a whole in the wool tariff? What propor-
ton of our citizens are rich woolgrowers,
and what does labor get out of the duty on
this article ? Is there any man who is not
a ranchman and who gets the tariff added
to the price of the large quantities Of wool
he sells, so blind as not to see that we are
all deeply interested in having this duty re-
moved?
Will the small wool-raiser suffer To
what extent? He can still raise his sheep
and grow his wool, and if he will grow the
right kind he can get as high a price for it
at home as anybody else can get away from
home, and his only grievance will be that
he cannot make as much money as he did
before, or that he has to work harder and
keep more sheep. On the other hand he
will reap larger benefit from tariff reduc-
tion on other necessaries of his farm than
the high wool tax gives him. Now the
Government makes its citizens who have to
buy woollen goods to keep warm, the
wool-grower among them, pay bounty on
wool by contribution from their scanty
purse, from their hard earnings, every time
they buy yard of colth or hank of yarn,
pound of wool rolls, pound Of rice or
sugar.
That is the wool question in a nut shell.
Under tariff which admits wool free the
Englishman will not compete with Ameri-
can manufacture or with American labor,
but the American will compete with the
Englishman in all the markets of the world,
and where we make one pound of cloth to-
day we shall make ten thousand in the
future, and employ proportionate number
of operatives.
Directly in point is the following par
agraph from the Providence (R. I.) Journal,
an Independent Republican newspaper in
the manufacturing district Of New Eng
land:
'The shutting down of the woollen mills
in North Andover, Mass, is not an event
budb VIII 10 oApiOlb0u do OfluOhCO budb Iu0
prospect of low duties is a death blow to
business enterprise. The mills close be-
cause the high price of wool and the narrow
range of selection, caused by the tariff,
makes their business losing one. Hun
dreds of other woolen mills are in almost
as bad condition, and are continuing opera
tions ouly in hope that the onerous wool
duties will be removed before the choice is
between bankruptcy and cessation.
If the duty were removed our manufact-
ures could get the wool from abroad neces-
sary for their purposes, which is not pro-
duced in the United States American
wool production being far short of Ameri-
can demand. We grow 265, 900, 900 pounds
a year and it requires 100000, 900 for our
sumption.-Norfok Landmark.