Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-08-02

New York Tribune.
The best, because the most complete,
illustration of the purposes which have
governed the President and the Demo-
cratic party in framing and passing the
Mills bill is its treatment of the duties
on woods and woollens. The duties paid
on all articles of this class in 1887
amounted to S35, 1929, ,534, the declared
value of all such imports being $50, $780,
GA, and the average rate of duty nearly
50 per cent. But Democratic perver-
Sions of the law in the interest of free
trade, and hostile Treasury rulings in
spired by Free Traders and foreign i'm
porters, have already opened the doors to
undervaluations both of wool and wool
lens, so great that the actual value of
imports was at least $4,000, 900, and
the actual rate of duty paid about so
per cent.
The pending bill proposes to take off
the duties entirely from raw wool, val
ued at $16,351,370 last year, and from
shoddy, rags, mungo and f1ockS, and the
many fraudulent forms of manufacture
included as waste" of which the value
imported last year was 81, 1,S55,6lS. Thus
SIS, ,206, 1888 in declared value of wool and
waste" which paid last year S6,39O.O55
duties, would be admitted free of duty,
besides the vastly increased quantities
= ,i.al ha mn tAh in
consequence of the removal of duty.
Deducting raw wool and "waSte," the
declared value of other manufactures of
wool imported last year was $42, 2,319, ,626,
on which the duty paid was S29, ,239,479,
or nearly 20 per cent. The pending bill
proposes to reduce these duties to 40 per
cent. ad valorem: that is, to cut off
three -seventhS of the existing protec-
ton, besides making fraudulent under
valuations easy by the substitution of
ad valorem for specific 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 mate
rial would enable the manufacturer to
produce cheaper goods by at least 80 per
cent. This assertion is distinctly made
by the chief advocates of the bill. But
the same men actually have the hardl
hood to tell the wool grower that a re-
moval of duty from wool would make
that product command a higher price;
that is, the cost of the domestic materi-
al would be increased to the manufact-
urer. and not diminished 35 per cent.
He now consumes about three pounds of
domestic for 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 35 per cent. lower, or else there
must be great increase in the foreign
and great decrease in the domestic
wool consumed, which necessarily means
decrease in the value of domestic wool
and sheep.
AT the very threshold, then, this bill
appears to be based upon a false and
fraudulent representation, either to
gro, vers or to manufacturers or to both.
But the pretence that foreign wool can
be imported in greatly increased quanti-
ties at 35 per cent. less than current
prices is no less fraudulent. Every
practical dealer knows that owing to
enormous undervaluations the rate of
duty paid is not now 35 per cent. or
even 80 per cent. of the actual cost. The
removal of the duty will not reduce the
cost to consumers in this country 30 or
even 80 per cent, even if there should
be no advance abroad in consequence of
the increase of imports. But sudden
and remarkable advance would certain
ly occur, as every practical dealer also
knows. Then, as domestic wool grow
ers disappeared, the foreign advance
would be greater. The pretence that
the manufacturer would get cheaper
wool in the end is therefore as deceptive
and fraudulent as the pretence that the
wool grower would get better price for
wool. But, without the promised de-
crease in cost of materials, the manu-
facturer must face reduction of three
sevenths in the rate of duty by which
thus far its industry has been but scan
tily protected. At existing rates many
hundred woollen manufacturing estab-
lishments are idle. The proposed change
would simply close up thousands OF
them.