Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1888-09-27
SNG1R IND WOOL.

The narrow partisanship of the Mills
tariff bill crops out conspicuously in the
classification of sugar and wool; indeed
the charge of sectionalism may be sup
ported on this ground alone. Wool is
placed on the free list and sugar is con-
tinued in the protected column. Pro-
lection to the saccharine product is all
right. We believe that those who raise
and refine that which makes more pal
atable the fragrant draught and which
constitutes III great degree the luxury
of food, should be protected from meet
ing hand to hand competition with de-
graded labor of foreign countries. 1t
Is true that the sugar crop of the United
States in lS87-S-the largest crop since
the war-was raised on about 10000
acres in Louisiana, an area whose cx-
tent is about onc-half of any of the
smaller counties in Iowa. 1t will be
said that this is very small territory
to demand protection by the tribute of
the whole people, and so it is. 1t is one
of the smallest of the protected pro-
duets. The fact is that the home crop
is vastly inadequate to the supply, but
the people pay the tariff without COM
plant. The tariff in this case encour-
ages adulteration, and the manufacture
ers work in old rubber boots and other
debris which will melt, while the Amer
lean patriot pays the tariff with ma
tional pride, stirS the vapid compound
in his coffee, draws on his imagination
for sweetener and devoutly hopes for
the time when the southerner will de-
yclOp his industry.
1t is estimated by a competent author
ity that there are in the United States
fifty million sheep, whose annual wool
clip is about three hundred and fifty
million pounds, worth, with varying
circumstances, from twenty to twenty
five cents per pound. One million two
hundred thousand persons not men
tioning their dependents are almost
exclusively engaged in caring for these
vast tlocks. Aside from those enumer-
atcd in the estimate, there are many
western farmers who have found wool
growing a profitable branch of diversi-
fed farming. This is especially true in
sections where portion of the land is
too barren for other purposes. Where
sheep raising is extensive it is almost
exclusive and the dependence of the
| farmer, for there his lands are not sutli
GENTLY productive to raise corn for cat
tie and hogs. The figures show the
wool raising industry to be one of large
proportions, many times greater than
the sugar interest. Then why does
Mills, the Texan cowboy, place it or
the free list in his tariff tinkering
scheme, and all his cohorts scream dis
tractedly for its adoption?
There is no reason which can be cited
for protecting the few thousands en-
gagged in raising sugar inapplicable tC
the millions of sheep owners and herd
ers. Argument is vastly i'll favor of the
latter, yet Mr.. Mills cares nothing fol
that. The plain and unvarnished fact
is that the sugar growers are in thu
south and the sheep raisers in the north
The bill is rankly partisan and section
AL The south sorely needs an infusion
of life-blood by the introduction of pro
tcctcd industries, and the north is anx
ious to see such development as vii
make the whole country equally pros
porous, but regards with suspicion tn,
advances of ex-rebel Mills to build VI
the one at the expense of the other.