The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-08-09
The Crown Flint Glass Works was
8nnraiseh at SIR snn
REHABILITATION.

Second period average price So s.!
Total average for low tariff period ... .. ...49
Total average for high tariff period............47
The sum lost to the farmers of the count ry b
| high tariff even by the above figures in seven
| teen years amounted to the value of the Who'll
wool crop of the country for one year. If III,
currency values were considered during the wal
period the difference would be much greater
For instance in 1864 when wool sold at $1.0S in
green backs, we have it in the tables at 45 cents
gold being at very high premium for several
years.
The above tables are the most favorable to
the high protectionistof any authoritative tables
we have ever seen and we chose them upon this
occasion for that reason. Nevertheless they
fully establish our proposition that the average
price of wool has been higher under low tariffs
than under high tariffs. 1t would be well for
gentlemen who meet and pass resolutions in
favor of the tariff of 1867 to pause and consider
the facts.
In regard to the reduction of the tariff on wool
IN 1883 it can be clearly demonstrated that wool
has not been harmed thereby. Since that date
WOOL has been essentially more valuable than it
was at that date. A pound of wool will buy to-
day more of the necessaries of life than it would
lu 1882. The Minneapolis Farm, Stock and
Home, the leading agriculture paper of that Sec
tion, recently said:
"While protectlonists are bewailIng the ruin
ous decline in the price of wool, and attributIng
1T to the tariff legislation of 1883, what have
they got to say about other farm products which
were not aHecteu Dy IegtsIatlon, bnt whlcn nave
declined from % to almost 80 per cent, while
wool has declined only 15 per cent?"
The report of the Cincinnati board of trade on
the prices of farm products in that market for
the year ended August l, 1885, notes decline
in prices as follows:
"Creamery butter. 20.7 per cent; cotton, 11.9
per cent; dried apples, 27.4 per cent; shelled
corn, 14.6 per cent; mess pork 81. lard, 1917;
tallow, %, and iaxseed, 1874 per cent. In wool
there was slight advance"
Under date of August /, 1886, the same board
reports decline in the prices of farm products
In that market since 1883, giving percentage, as
follows:
"Mess pork, 4s.5; hard. 46; hams, 24.4; corn,
AZ; oats, 39.4; rye, 1875; butter, 46.9; tallow,
Ala; flour, 1873; cheese, III; cattle, 1872; bar
ley, 1876, and wool 10 per cent"
One reason that has been given is the compe-
tltion of the wool growers of the west and south
west A Texan writing to the Boston Cultiva-
tor few years ago said: "The cost of produc-
tion here is generally estimated at cents
pound" OF course that is at a much lower rate
than wool can be produced in Ohio; and the
wool grown in Texas cannot be prevented from
entering our markets by the imposition of tariff
duties. But while this competition, under the
circumstances, has had an influence in lowering
prices, still we do not impute to it the impor-
tance that some people do. We believe that if
the manufacturers of America were unham-
pered by artificial restrictions the demand for
wool grown in the United States would
far exceed the supply, and prices of wool
would be forced upward. The present capacity
of the wooen mills of this country is 600 0OO 600
pounds per annum, while the wool production i'll
1880 was only 240, 600 900 pounds. If the Amer
lean manufacturer could buy his foreign-g grown
wools. to mix with our domestic woods, at the
same prices as the foreign manufacturer pays,
then he could compete with foreign manufac-
turers in the markets of the world and could
make use of that much more home grown wool.
We have before little pamphlet issued
several years ago in criticism of speech of
Major Mckinley. 1t is in the form of a dialogue
and treats this subject. We will condense in
paragraph the opinions of the writer:
ga duty on wool has always caused
the price of domestic wool to GO
down, while it puts up at the same time the
cost of foreign wool; so that the wooden manu-
facturer is deprived of proper selection of
crude material; woolen goods cost more than
they ought 70 do; the farmers pay so per cent.
more for their clothes than they should pay.
The reason why duty puts the price of wool
down is that duty on foreign wool prevents
the woolen manufacturers of America from mix
ing foreign and domestic woods as freely (and so
using more of domestic wooD, as they would if
foreign wool was admitted free of duty. 1t
drives the woolen manufacturers of America
into the, use of shoddy and cotton upon au
enormous scale, SO that they very nearly if
not quite as much of these sham substitutes for
wool as they do of wool itself. It prevents them
from making as large variety of goods as foreign
manufacturers having free wool can do; and
thus the whole result to make the demand for
domestic wool less than, and the price lower
than 1t would naturally be. But if foreign
wool were admitted free of duty American
manufacturers would be enabled to compete
with the manufacturers of other countries and
they would use less shoddy and buy more do
mestic wool to mix with the foreign WOOL"
TO PARTIcULARIzE.
In order to understand the situation more
fully we will enter into details. At the pres
ent time, in consequence of the wool tariff the
for oiOn foo ofnra h,,xy he
Australia, South Africa South America Silesia,
Thibet and other exporting countries at one
half to twothirds of the cost to American manu-
facturers. These wools do not come into COM
petition with the woods of the United States
They each differ from the others and from our
domestic wool in Fl Der and grade. They vary
according to the country and the civilization
and each has its individual use. In Thlbit and
other semi-barbarous countries the wool pro-
duced is the coarse carpet wool which Ameri-
cans have no inclination to produce even
were they able. In Silesia we find wool with
delicacy OF texture unlike anything known
here. Not only is there this great dissimilitude
in the woods of distinct countries, but there is a
variation in the wools of dissimilar sections of
the same country. There are certain manufac-
tories that have gained a reputation for particu-
lar fabrics by using proportion of eastern
Ohio wool. Those manufacturers ALWAYS look
out for the wool clip of eastern Ohio. Judge
of fabrics can tell instantly by touch the differ
ence between cloth made of merino wool
grown in Vermont and cloth made of merlno
wool grown in Maine. Climate, soil, foed, at
tention, natural selection, methodlcaI selection
all these exert an influence in determining the
quality, texture and length of fiber
These principles were recognized as far
back in the dim past as the date of the
most ancient records of ancient China. In every
country the breeder selects for some definite
object, and that object as modified by climate,
food, etc., is never the same exactly as that of
breeder in country of different physical and
social attributes. Darwin has told aus how the
peculiar excellence of the wool OF Saxony has
been maintained. He says:
sin Sa1ony the Importance of the principle
of selection in regard to merino sheep is so fully
recognized that men follow it as a trade; the
sheep are placed on a table and are studied like
picture by connoisseur; this is done three
times at intervals Of months, and the sheep are
each time marked and classed, SO that the very
best may ultimately be selected for breeding, -
Youatt, who is a recognized authority amongst
sheep breeders, says that the two iocks of Lei
cester sheep kept by MIR. Buckley and Mr. Bur
CESS "have been purely bred from the original
stock of Mr.. BakewelI for upward of tiftv
years. There is not a suspicion iu the
mind of any one at all acquainted with the SUBJ
ject that the owner of either of them has devi.
ated in any one instance from the pure blood of
Mr. BakewelPs flock, and yet the difference be-
tween the sheep possessed by these gentlemen is
so great that fhey have the appearance of heInv