The Portland daily press., 1888-08-02
PRICE THREE CENTS.

cite from the utterances Of two dIstlnonishaa
friends OF the lumber industry, and iet vo,,
see for yourselves how they agree about tt
Judge Wiswell. friend Of lumber fnterast
said In his speech at the Portland conven.
tion,. that the removal Of the tarin
on lumber would reduce the prieea fesa
and work calamity to the Industry
Mr.. Reed, In the House Of Representatives.
said during the debate ON the Mills bill that
the removal Of the tariff on lumber would
not materially reduce the price; think Mr..
Reed Is right. The amount Of lumber Cana
da could put into our market would be too
small TO seriously affect prices.
Now, let us look at the wool tariff. Under
the stimulus OF tha war, which required an
Immense amount Of woolen clothes and
blankets and under the other inducements and
business excltements Of war, the production
Of wool and the w0Olen inustries shot ahead
wonderfully, land Maine eniOyed her share 81
Of the progress, But from the close of the
war to 1880, neither the woolen or other man
ufactures Of Maine showed an advance
worth considering. At various times during
that ten years the w00len manufactures
were In great distress This very last win
ter. before the Mills bill was put in shape,
or Congress had even assented,. the wOolen
manufacturers and growers had a cOnven-
tion in Washington, and put their names 10
statement showing the state Of the wooden
manufactures In America. And that state
ment showed the industry to be In an unfor-
tgnate condition in spite Of the protection.
NOW there Is wooden mill In Oakland that
could not make dividend last year. Now
their product was sold before the Mills bill
was conceived. Yet some of its stockholders
are telling the newspapers that the Mills bill
caused the trouble that has happened to
their mill. They do this in the face and
eyes OF the declaration made by the wool
congress before the Mills bill
was thought of. The Conditioned the
wool Industry and woolen manufactures
at the time OF the Congress before the Mills
Dill was convened, was such that they felt
that they could not live unless they could
get an Increase of protection. Now having
tried protection for 25 years and finding
their industry In a condition where they are
calling for relief, should not they try some
other plan to relieve the channel OF trade
ald.industry? SO with wool. You will fnd
that from 1880 to 1886 the foeks Of Maine di-
minished from S2000,000 to little over ST.
100000 In value according to the official sta
tistics OF Maine. On the other hand, take
horses, which pay slight duty, and other
live stock and you lind an increase. This
Shove that the State Of Maine Is not depend
ent on protection.
Look, now, at your great water power,
from Milford to Bangor, a power nine times
that Of Lewiston, that would run more than
ten times the spindles Of Lewiston. 1 ask
what has protection tariff done for that
power? understand that lately one woOlen
mill has been erected at Oldtown. III IL has
taken 25 years TO get one little woolen mill
on the Penobscot, how long will il take
TO make you manufacturing city?
l asked a w0olen manufacturer the other
day why the wOOlen industry was depressed.
He said that the worsted manufacturers,
because OF the Importation Of foreign goods,
had turned to wooden manufacturing. But
found that only $50 cards were running on
worsted anyway, compared with six thou
rands running In the wooden mills Now Is
II reasonable that the turning Of these few