Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-04-12

: break down one of the most YalUabl,
industries of the country. 1t is public
proclamation that the American policl
of protection, So long adhered to, anC
under which has been secured unprece
dented prosperity in every department
of human effort, is to be abandoned.
Why have the majority put wool OF
the free list? Let them make their OWL
answer. We quote from the report
/ I'VE say to the manufacturer We have
put wool on the free list to enable him to
obtain foreign woods cheaper, make his
goods cheaper, and send them into for
eign markets and successfully compete
with the foreign manufacturer.
First, the purpose is to bring down the
price of wool. If this should be the re-
suit, We inquire at whose expense and
loss? 1t must be at the expense of the
grower and to his loss, who, at present
prices and with the present duty, is be-
ing forced out of the business by ruinOuS
foreign competition. The injury, by the
confession of the majority, viii fall
upon the American wool grower. He is
to be the first victim. He can find no
profitable foreign market, if ne is unable
to hold his own, and it is absurd to talk
about enlarging the market for his
product at home with the wool of the
world crowding them out with the ad-
vantage unchecked by cuStom-hOuSe
| duties.
There were 114,000,000 pounds of
wool imported into this country the last
| fiscal wear, and our domestic product as
a result, even with duty of 10 cents a
pound on the higher grades, was dimin-
ished to 265,000,000 pounds. The bill
will greatly increase importarions of the
foreign product and diminish, if not
wholly destroy, our own production.
Every nation ought, if possible, to pro-
duce its clothing, as well as its food.
This nation can do both, if the majority
will let it alone. 1t should be borne in
mind that our wool producers can not
compete with countries where no winter
feeding and but little summer attention
is required and whose labor is so cheap,
unless their industry has just and ade-
quate protection. Is labor in manufac-
turing more deserving of the considera-
ton of Congress than labor engaged in
the field of agriculture? Both are use
full and equally honorable, and alike
merit the thoughtful consideration of
those charged with making laws. The
majority report asserts that we must
produce our wooden goods at lower cost
and be able to underSell the foreign
product. And after this how is the
lower cost to be secured? First by
fleeing the wool growers and next by
deducting the labor cost in the manu-
facture How are we to undeTSell the
foreign product? By making the man
ufacturing cost of our goods less than
theirs. In other words, by cutting
down the wages of our skilled and un-
skilled labor, not to the foreign standard
simply, but below it, for the product
must cost us less if we underseu our
competitors. The American farmer will
not quietly submit to this injustice. The
American workingman will Indignantly
repef this effoff to his labor.
The majority gravely inquiries in its
report: If Congress grants the request
of the wool growers, what are the peO
pie to do for wooden clOthing?" We beg
to suggest that the people of this cOun-
try wore wooden clothing during the eX-
istence of the tariff of 1867, and the tariff
proposed by the wool conference is sub
stantially that tariff, and the people were
never better clothed and never better able
to buy them. 1t would be instructive to
the majority to compare the prices of
wooden clothing in this country during
the period from 1917 to 1860 under the
low tariff then prevailing with the prices
now prevailing, and they would be profit
ed also by comparison of the price OF
wages then prevailing with those now
maintained These investigations would /
disclose the wretched condition of labor |
in the former period, the starving prices /
then received, and the inability of thou |
sands of worthy wOrkmen to get work at |
any price. Clothes at any price were
then the dearest. If the labOring men |
could have been heard by the committee
they would have told story of misery
during the free-trade era which might |
have deferred the majority even from
inaugurating the policy now proposed.
Again, the majority inquire: ''Are
the people to be compelled by Congress
to wear cotton clothes in the winter, or 90
without, to give bounties to wool grow
ers and wOol-manufacturers?" While /
the question is too trifiing for serious
reply, we assure the majority that the
only danger of such happening is from
the bill they now report, bill which is
to deprive our people of employment
and the opportunity to earn money with
which to feed and clOthe themselves and
their families and educate their children.
The foreign market to which the Amer
lean producer is invited by the majority
report is delusory. Our own market is
the best. There is no market anywhere
comparable with it. Let us first of all
possess it. 1t is ours and we should en-
Joy it. Wool on the free list is a deadly
assault upon great agricultural inter
est, and will fall with terrible severity
upon million people. 1t will destroy
invested capital, unsettle established
values. wreSt from the flockmaSters their
lifetime earnings, bankrupt thousands
of our best and most industrious farm
ers and drive them into other branches
of agriculture already overcrowded. 1t
is vicious and indefensible blow at the
entire agricultural interests of the coun-
try.
The report then goes on to say that
if the provisions of the bill concerning
wooden goods and manufactures of wool
became law, the whole ready-made
business of the country will be
to European rivals. The pro-
visions proposed by the bill under the !
flax and hemp, bOrax, earthenware, glass
plate plass, lumber, salt and metal Sched- {
ules, the report declares will, if enacted l
into law, be disastrous, if not entirely '
ruinouS to many American industries. !
In concluding the report the minority |
say: 1t is manifest that the responsible
ity for the present monetary condition
which so alarms the country does not '
rest with the minority party in the House
but with the President and the majority {
in Congress. They cannot escape it. l
The President has for three years failed,