The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-08-15
FARMERS AND CHEAP WOOL.
GOOD PRODUCTS BRING GOOD PRICES.
other Interesting Matter for the Farmer
and His Family-Household Hints
Worth Attention-Notes
Various Topics.

The Chicago Times, giving an account OF
certain visit he made and its result:
swell, Uncle Jake, heard that you were
laid up with rheumatism, so 1 thought I
would come over and see YOU"
Yes, my boy, these rains we have been
having are playing the mischief with my
old rheumatic bones; but 1 guess 1 will
pull through all right in a few days"
"Well, Uncle Jake, was down to Bob's
last week. There were several of his
neighbors there one afternoon, and we all
went out and sat in the shade OF large
tree. Our conversation naturally drifted
into political matters. was not long IN
ascertaining that was in pretty hot re-
publican nest. They were all abusing
President Cleveland when l concluded
that it was about time to cool their ardent
spirits little. So Iquietly asked them
what they had against President Cleve-
land. The reply was: He's democrat
We'll, gentlemen said I, 4 would be
ashamed to call myself man if 1 should
condemna person on no otherground than
party prejudice. III Cleveland is demo-
crat he is not democratic president,
but the president of the whole United
States. And no man can honestly say
word against his administration Then
Bob wanted to know if Cleveland was not
traying to ruin this country with his Tree
trade ideas / asked him to specify sim
gle branch of our industry that President
Cleveland was trying to destroy. Wool,
says Bob, in husky voice. We'll, says
|, there are six farmers present who own
good farms. / would like 10 know how
many sheep you all own Bob said he
had thirteen and another one OF
the party had eleven; the other four
didn't have any. Then there are six of
you here who represent twenty-four
sheep. 1t seems to me that you all are
pretty heavily interested in the wool bus
mess. No wonder you are so interested
in the rise and the fall of the price OF that .,
article. 1t appears to strike me that If |
were so heavily interested l would be I'M
able to sleep nights with so heavy a pres
sure on my mind They all began to
laugh Now says 1, 'as this wool seems
to stick in your craw we will investigate
matters and see what will be the final end
OF the poor sheep if the duty is entirely
removed from the raw wool. In the
first place, the wool grown in this country
is only 265, 100000 pounds per year, and 1t
requires 600,O00,000 pounds per year to
clothe the people of this country, there
fore leaving a deficiency of 335,000,000
pounds.
"'Now, the manufacturer of cloth can
not afford to import wool and pay a heavy
duty on the same so he must content him
self with working up considerable shoddy
into cloth. This shoddy is manufactured
out of old rags. Some of them are picked
up out OF the street, dirty and filthy, and
some are imDOrted from China
They don't import old rags from
China, do they?' asked Bob.
"'Yes, says /, they import them by the
ship-load. Scarcely a vessel arrives from
China that has not a large quantity of old
rags aboard. And this is not all. Plenty
of old rags or clothes are discarded by peo-
pie who have loathsome diseases, and
diseases, rags, and all are manufactured
into shoddy, and, with a little wool added
is manufactured into cloth and sold for
all wool and a yard wide Now, if the
manufacturer could get all the wool he
needed, which is 335, 100000 pounds more
than we raise, without paying more for it
than he pays for domestic woodland the
price OF domestic wool need not be lowered
any-he could make all the cloth we need
in this country, thereby giving employ
ment to 100000 or 5000 more labOrers,
and by so doing we could get much better
and cheaper clothing. This would avoid
the necessity OF wearing clothes made out
of part shoddy which has been made out
of filthy and diseased rags. And at the
same time there would be about 125,010
more laborers using our produce, thereby
giving us a double benefit. Does this
look like running our wool industry
'"Now let us look at what the protection
list wants the farmers to do. There are
500 men in this country whose business it
is to make iron rods. The barb wire we
use is all manufactured out of these iron
rods. Now for every ton OF these rods
that are made we have to pay tribute of
Sl3.44 to protect or support these 500 men.
And there Is scarcely a farmer in Illinois
that has not contributed his little SSH,
and some have duplicated it several
times. The republicans say we must con-
tinue to pay this tribute, but President
Cleveland says it is not right And be-
cause he desires to be a benefactor to the
farmers, you allow your real enemies, the
high tariff and free whisky men.
to pull the wool over your
eyes, and you cry out against
the best friend the farmerever had in the
presidents chair. Now what we need is
cheap raw material, such as iron and lum-
Der. The cheaper the manufacturer can
get his raw material the cheaper he can
make our machinery aud other necessary
articles. And the cheaper the manufac-
turer can make the more the farmers and
other customers viii buy, thus giving
more employment TO the thousands OF I'M
employed Americans in our home manu-
featuring establishments, thus giving a
larger home market for our produce
And l tell YOU before I left Bob's l gave
them to understand which side of their
bread was buttered, and they all acknowl-
that Cleveland was much better friend
to the farmer and laborer than they had
supposed, and that the great railroad at
torney, backed up by the Wall-st. BAN
ker and other Wall-st. sharks, would not
be a very safe refuge after all for the far
mer and laborer to cling to.