Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-05-25

ure.
Should this bill become law, Mr..
Chairman, it would paralyze every indus
try in my State.
The flock masters of Vermont, after
more than half century of careful and
intelligent breeding from importations of
Merino sheep originally selected from the
best fiocks of Europe, have reached
standard of excellence in their product
never yet surpassed in any country.
These sheep have been sought and pur-
chased by breeders in every State from
Maine to California The masters of vast
fiocks in Australia have come for them,
and to-day cargo of them, gathered in
my own county, is on the sea bound for
that distant colony, while still another is
on its way to the Argentine Republic.
Inns has become great industry, ben
ehclal alike to the breeders and to the
wool producers, the standard of whose
wool product is thus advanced and by re-
newals from time to time kept at high
point as to quality and quantity Years
of patient study and labor and large ex-
penditure of money have been necessary
to work out this result, which has proved
OF lnestlmable value 10 the people at large
OF TINS country. If wool is put on the
Tree list this industry ceases to exist. for
let me assure the advocates of this meas
ure that in this field, as in every other
American industry, the home market is
the best, and is the great dependence of
the breeder of fine sheep. When the
nome market is destroyed the motive for
production ceases. 1t has been asserted
here that this radical change will not Sc
rlously inlure the farmers engaged in
wool growing. This was especially as
serted by my friend from Massachusetts,
(Mr. RusselD, who, believe, keeps a lot
OF fancy long-wooled sheep, but not
great many of them at that.
Mr.. Russell of Massachusetts - How
many do you call "a great many"
MIR. Stewart of Vermont-When speak
OF "a great many" | refer to thousands.
Mr.. Russell of Massachusetts-Is thers
farmer in your State who has "A thou
sand sheep?
MIR. Stewart of Vermont-Oh, yes
many of them. And the gentlemen's
sheep, as | understand, are not what we
call in my part of the country wool-grow-
ing sheep. They have wool, to be sure.
but the gentlemen says himself that he
puts mutton first and wool last The |
great body of sheep-growers in this coun- |
try, who, l think. might probably COM
pare in intelligence on this subject with |
my friend from Massachusetts. do not
agree with him on this point. He is in a
very sad minority. 1t is a little singular
that the wool-growers of this country do |
not entertain any such opinions as nv
friend announces here. When farmer
can buy good suit of wool clothes,
ready-made. for SO; when under this |
abused system clothes and every article |
put to human use has been cheapened: /:
when the farmers do not ask this change
Wilen the manufacturers in whose inter-
est professedly this action is proposed en-
ter their united protest against it; when |
the laboring men do not ask it and do not |
want it; when in short nobody wants it.
except the gentlemen on this floor who |
represent the traditions of another age
and another system, the free traders and |
the British manufacturers it certainly !
seems passing strange that any sane man
III the hight OF this undeniable situation |
can seriously claim that the destruction
OF great industry, involving hundreds
or millions of dollars, the property of |
more than million of farmers, should
be sacrificed at a blow upon mere con-
lecture that if this is done he will get his
clothes at less cost. and the manufacturer
can export clothes to England and Ger
many in competition with the low priced
labor in those countries.
Those gentlemen who refuse to listen
to the advice of the manufacturer and
would open TO him the markets of the
world, are wise only in their own con-
cet.
In brief, with the removal of all duties
on WOOL, we should not gain a
cents worth of foreign trade, for the 9TH
er woolen-using countries. France, Eng
land and Germany, could still undersell
us in foreign markets with the help of
their cheap labor. We should lose the
tine-wool industry, which would be
transferred to South America and Aus
tralia, and we should also lose cheap NUT
ton.
If the ratio of increase of sheep in the
United States prior to 1888, which was
arrested by the reduction of the duty on
wool in that year, had continued, the num-
Der of sheep in 1887 should have been 64.-
10000, but it steadily declined to A, ,OOO,-
OOO-a loss of about 100000 in two
years. In 1888 $4,000, 900 of sheep Weld
ed 100000, 900 pounds of wool and 2,OOO,-
600 carcasses for food, and the total an
nual production was estimated at Sl2O.- ,
OOO,OOO. The national organization of
wool growers represents 10000 farmers.
Their vast investment in this interest was {
made under the promise of protection. (
Will you, gentlemen of the South, DENY I
TO the wool grower what you gave to the
rice planter and the sugar planter of your
own region? Are sugar and rice less dali
Iy necessaries of the poor than the clothes
ne wears? +