Montgomery County sentinel., 1888-08-03
TIE TARIFF ON WOOL.

sND A~A&sAA DAr " NDD
The wool question still remains the one
over which the leaders of the Republican
party are most agitated, and as servants of
the American monopolists, we think they
well may be agitated.
Under the prohibitory or restrictive tariff,
such as the American people have been
burdencd with for the past twenty years, we
have seen that it is possible for few to con-
troll the production of our country, and just
to the extent that they control the produc-
tion do they not control the consumption of
those materials that enter into the produc-
tion of such articles. And in controlling
the consumption of any material, do they
not, as natural consequence, control the
price of the same?
TO illustrate: After the American manu-
facturer of woolen goods had, through the
Republican party, succeeded in getting a
high tariff placed on all imports that might
come in competition with anything he de-
sired to make, has not history demonstrated
that the stronger and more wealthy among
them began to reason thus: "Now here, all
the goods consumed in this country must be
made here. This tariff is a inc thing for
u.s. Now if few of us can make all the
woollen goods that are needed or will be
consumed by this American people and sell
them up TO tariff prices we will have bon
anza' We need not care tor the trade of
the outside world"
"There is one way to do it, If we can
only limit the number of wooden mills that
shall be operated, we will have the bull by
the horns" They go to work, and by a
system of pooling decide who thisfew may
be. Then commences the WEE -es. iitle
wooden industries. They place their agents
on the road, instructing them to find out
where and at what prices these little mills
are selling these products. In this the agent
succeeds. Next this same agent, or some
other, is among the customers of the small
mills, offering and selling goods equal to or
better than the products of the small mills
at prices far below what the small mills
| could afford to sell-below the cost of man
ufacture-at loss. This loss Is borne by
the association, although the goods may have
been made and sold by one mill. They keep
this up for number of months, bounding
the representative of the smaller mill wher.
ever he goes until finally the little mill is
shut down, and the employees are thrown
out of employment. The farmers of the
neighborhood, who had formerly taken their
wool to the little mill and received factory
prices, must seek another market--some
wool dealer who cannot pay factory prices
and do business. He must buy it so as tc
make profit. Well what follows? Lei
US see Prices of woolen goods go back tC
their former standard or little higher
There are woolen factory operatives idle
seeking employment. They naturally 60 to
the woolen mill. They are needing money
to supply their wives and children with the
necessaries of life, they offer to work for less
than the ordinary price Tor such labor The
rich nabob proprietor of one of the "associil.
ton mills" goes To his employees and says:
| "Here, l must reduce your wages a little,
can get this same work done for less money
than am paying you" The laborer either
accepts or quits work, in either of which
he is the loser and the mill combination the
gamer.
But what next? He has succeeded il
closing our ports to all the word-they be
gin to look at the wool question and agair
reason like this "What is the use of us pay
ing as much for wool as we are now paying
The English woolen manufacturer won
come here to buy our American wool
We have that all shut off, let us Put the
price of wool down litte-the farmer ha:
tariff on wool, he won't know what de-
stroys his price-and if he kicks any VIC
will cry for more tariff on WOOL" Has the
American farmer asked himself, what has
become of the carding mill, the spinning
mill or small woolen mill that once -four.
ished in his neighborhood Do we not grow
the finest wool? Would not the English
woolen manufacturer gladly come here and
compete with our American manufactured
in the purchase OF our fine clipY Would
not such competition bring up prices? Sup
pose we had tariff of 81 per pound on
wool could we get more for it than oul
American manufacturer saw fit to give us
SO long as we are prohibited from selling
esewherep These are the questions for con
sideration now before the American farmers