Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-08-06
tioning, is not on the fence. 1t is a

the so-called Mills bill s'are hostile (,
the interests of New England" w
know Of no reason for their enmitv t,
this section except that they ar
southerners chiefly, who have not en-
terely forgotten that New Englan,
was instrumental in the overthrow n
the slave oligarchy and in whippins
them back into the Union when the,
fought to get out, save slavery anC
establish free trade, which, with slav
cry, were the corner stones in the
Confederate Constitution. If the
provisions of the Mills bill do moi
strike at New England and Vermont
thousands of intelligent men are ter.
ribly in error. But Mr.. McG., famil.
lar as he seems to be with the best
democratic arguments extant, tackles
us on the wool question as follows:
Your first article is wool, which seems
to be the great bugaboo used by all oppo-
nents of the BILL to brighten the farmers
who are wool raisers. Now let US take
the wool question right home, here in
Barton and Glover, or in Orleans County.
You claim that free wool would make it
cheaper, and in the way of argument we
will admit that it would, and if wool is
cheaper, certainly clothing will be cheap
er, and our climate and the customs of
society make it absolutely necessary that
every man, woman and child should be
clothed in part with wooden goods. Well ;
now, take your own town of Barton
The population in 1880 was 1884, and we
are safe in calling it 240O now. There
cannot be more than 200 regular farmers
and of these one fourth do not raise any
wool, which would leave $50 persons to
sell wool, most of them in small quanti-
ties, and 2400 to buy clothing, which is
Is to buy clothing where one sells wool.
Now is it better that those 16 persons
should pay high price for their clothing
than for the one to sell his wool PIC per
pound less because the tariff has been
taken off?
We assume that the farming indus
try is the great industry of Vermont
that whatever cripples the farmer in
jures every man in every business or
profession in the state. The wool
business is one of the important in
dustries and so long as the tariff is
such that the wool grower is not bro't
into direct competition with the cheap
wool of foreign countries, he can
raise sheep, make little something
off his wool and sell his lambs and
mutton at profit.
All who care to discuss the tariff
question fairly well know that the
condition of farming is such that
small blow aimed at it is fatal to the
interests of many. Now for Mr..
Noes arithmetical problem: A pop
ulation of 2,400, $50 farmer wool
growers, 2,400 people to be clad,
sixteen times as many to be benefit
ed by cheap clothes as to be helped
by high wool. But not only is the
one man benefited by having a wool
business that is profitable, but every
member of his family is helped, and
those in his employ are also helped
by the farmers success. Not only
one person in the family, but six or
more, as the case may be, so not $50,
but 900. The wool buyer gets ht-
tie commission out of the business,
the railroad, the manufacturer and so
on through the list. The merchant,
the mechanic, everybody in town is
more OF less benefited by the wool
business. Turn the proposition round.
Low wool makes lower priced goods,
as it is assumed. 1t might be so,but
shows that the last tariff
which literally killed off
half the sheep raising in Vermont,
made no appreciate difference in the
price of coats or shirts or with wooden
goods. Unless Mr.. MEG. can demon
strate by figures that clothing and
wooden goods will be sold lower un-
der the sheep-raising destructive sys-
TEN, we claim that nobody is benefit
ed and everybody is harmed. 1t is
demonstrated by the low price of
wool this season that the proposed
tariff has so affected the wool bust
ness that nobody wishes to buy it at
a remunerative price. Those whose
memory runs back only few years
can see large fiocks of sheep on
hundreds of farms, where now there
are none; they recall the time when
wool growing was remunerative. The
small reduction on the tariff in 1888
nearly destroyed the industry. Is
there man so blind as to say that
it would not be better for Vermont,
for Glover or Barton, if wool sold to-
day for 40 cents a pound? If you
think so, say so, Mr.. free wool
man. But the free wool prospect
threatens to badly cripple sheep rails
ing everywhere; it will drive men
out of the sheep business into the
dairy business, or something else;
but there are farmers enough in the
dairy business already. Butter barely
sells at living rate. Put the wool
growers to dairying, and where is
dairying? Kill out wool growing by
letting the people of Australia grow
our wool and get our money for it
kill out dairying by putting the wool
farmers into it, and what then? Try
the cattle business and SO overdo
that that nobody can live; turn to
horse raising and fill the world up
with horses after the horse expert
ell