The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-10-17
WOOL.
Extract from . Speech of X. s. Taylor ut
Maysyiile, Ind, Oct. 10, 1888.

Extract from . Speech of X. s. Taylor at
Maysviile, Ind, Oct. 10, 1888.
Beware of false prophets which come to you
IN Sleeps clothing. but inwardly they are raven
ing wolves"
The persons here referred to are "a riff reform
Democrats preaching free wool. They propose
to make q very radical cham &c IN our commercial
policy. For what For the purpose, they say.
of reducing the surplus. Is that the true and
honest reason, or the slick talk of the false
prophetl Let rs see.
Our total tariff revenue last year wss s217,-
2S6, 1913. If We must reduce it somehow, where
shall we beginl We collected last year from
duties on imported sugar, excluding lnolasses,
s56, 507, 495. AID on imported wool, s., SIC.
we can raise sugar only in o small part Of the
countryside lower half of Louisiana. and q
portion of Texas and Florida We use 2,600.-
600, 600 pounds a year, and can produce only
about 300, 900, 900 pounds. There is no reason
to believe that We can greatly increase the
amount produced by Us unless we can find
out some way to make cheap sugar from sor-
ghum.
limit to the amount we can produce. We raised
in 1886 285, 600, 600 pounds. We imported for
the year ending June 30, 1887, ia, OOO,O 600
pounds, of which 81, 600, 900 pounds was coarse
carpet wool paying only p cents o pound duty
and which is not profitable for US to raise, leav-
ing only 80, 000, 900 pounds OF foreign wool that
came into the country In competition with our
own
dcko dLc WI tucEACdl
Both relate to necessaries of life. One has
reached its limit of development aud can supply
only one-tenth OF our wants. The other supplies
eight-ninths of our wants now, and has no limit
of growth. Which of them will you select IL
your honest purpose is to simply reduce the rev.
enuel Sugar, mauifestly. Yet the Mills bill
puts wool on the free list In order to take
IS. 200, 900 from the revenue and keeps a tariff on
sugar that will produce $45, 000, 900 per annum'
Gao any man look at these facts and believe
that the real. inside, down-deep intention Of
these reformers is just to reduce the revenuef
l cay 1t il impossible. There is q hidden purpose
somewbere-some sort of a cat IN the mealtub.
What 10 itf
Wool car be raised IN every State, but it hap
pens that ive-sixths OK it is grown ia Northern
States. Sugar is grown only in the Southern
Democratic States. There Is a bit of a cat's-taii
visible in that circumstance. Wool Is the chief
agricultural production of the North that Is di-
rectly protected by our present tariff. Flax is
next. Both of these are put on the free list by
the Mills bill. To take away from the Northern
farmer all benefit OF protection on things they
raise will tend TO ALLEVIATE them from the support
of the protective system. And if they can be
turned against protection there is an end of it,
There is a sly cats-paw revealed in this trick.
We are told that free wool will open the mar
kets of the world to our factories. Will itl As
the law now stands, a manufacturer who i'm
ports wool from abroad. and then exports the
cloth made from it. is paid back 80 per cent Of
the duty he paid on the wool In the form OF q
drawback. So that, for the purpose of foreign
trade, he gets his wool nearly free now. The
finest wool pays ten cents a pound duty. Nine
cents back leaves only one cent a pound actual
cost OF importation TO the manufacturer who
desires to sell abroad. Then why can he not
invade the markets of the world nowl Because
he pays too much for his labor.
Free wool will lower the price Of the Ameri-
can clip; but. at the same time, it will slightly
raise the price abroad. The best judges place
that rise at two or three cents. Hence the
American manufactures will have to paw that
much more when he buys abroad. But having
paid no duty, he will get no drawback when he
exports his cloth. So that, in fact, he will be
q little worse of than be is now in his endeav-
ors to sell goods in the foreign market, unless he
reduces wages.