Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-08-29
The Truth Must be Confessed,

The Truth Must be Confessed.
The time has come when the truth
must be confessed as to the absolute
necessity of free wool to save our vas,
wooden industries from destruction, land
the sooner that our woolen manufact
ures present the plain truth to the pub
lie and to Congress as they confess il
to each other, the sooner will we have
honest tariff legislation in the IN terests
of American Ia Dor.
| There have been woolen failures in
every section of the country during the
last six months, and the end is not yet
The fall of the great house of Lewis
Bros & Co. was solely the result, and
| the entirely logical result, of the crush.
ing taxes imposed on the raw materials
of our woolen industries. That house
and the manufactures it represented
struggled against destructive taxes on
raw materials until the crippled or
| broken manufacturers forced the COM
| mission house to suspensions; and COM
mission merchants, manufacturers and
workingmen are plunged into advers-
| lty by nigh taxes on raw materials in
the leading protective country of the
world, when no other protective nation
imposes such taxes in any degree.
The truth on this vital question must
be confessed. 1t is publicly confessed
by multiplied bankruptcy in the WOOL
zen industry, but the time has come
when it must be manfully confessed by
woclen man ufacturers instead of shiv-
ering over the issue in silence before
the public, and deploriDg these need
less and oppressive taxes in private.
I>h
David Crowther & Son, the last of our
wooden manufacturers to confess bank
ruptcy, rises up from the shattered
business to which he has given his best
efforts, and declares that only free wool
will save our wooden industries. He
is an earnest and consistent Republi-
can; he carried q Fremont banner in
1856 and has uniformly sustained Re
lican candidates; but he now realizes
that the enforced hypocrisy of WOODEN
manufactures on the wool tariff, ostens-
IDLY to maintain protection to WOODEN
fabrics, was as destructive as it was
false.
Mr.. Crowther quotes a fellow woolen
manufacturer as declaring that we
must have free wool. but "he dare not
let it be known" THIS is the marrow
of the trouble. Mr.. Dolan and others
practically asked Congress for free wool
in the petition of the manufacturer as
sociation; but they were simply driven
into silence on the subject by the ac-
cepted theory that the vast labor in
the manufacture OF woolens could be
protected only by giving high protec-
ton to wool growers, who have prac-
tically no labor to protect. Mr.. Dobson
also joined in that appeal in which
Congress was urged to give the Amer
can woolen industries an opportunity
to compete with the foreign manufact-
urer, who has the great advantage "of
having the raw material of his manu-
facture free from duty" Mr.. Dobson,
i'm answer to the inquiries of the last
Tariff Com mission, said that free car
pet wOols would warranta correspond
ing decrease in the price of their goods
which would accrue to the benefit of
the consumer. IN point of fact, there
is not woolen manufacturer in the
country who does not feel the necessity
for free wool, but they have been ter
rorized by the threat that the woei-
growing interests, which have no labor
To protect, would retaliate by the de-
mand for free woolens, which would
crush one of our leading industries.
The first Republican House o! Rep
TGStuldtlSGS lldt ever ui0J Ill our Ills.
tory, over which Banks presided, pass
ed a bill to make wool practically free,
and it so remained unqestioned until
the trouhlous times of 1861, when
high tariff was enacted. 1t was done
IN obedience to the demand OF New
England industries, where tie wooden
mills were most numerous, and it was
by the leading Republicans
of New England. Free raw materials
were then part ofthe Republican faith,
and they are now demonstrated, by |
universal embarrassment or bank |
ruptcy IN the woolen industries, as an /
integral part of the true protective
policy. II we would protect labor and
and its wages, we must have free wool;
and it is high time that those who
know the truth should manfully con-
fess it. Let there be truth between
our labor and our government, ana
truth will give labor free raw mater
ials to enlarge our industries. increase
the demand for labor, multiply our
markets and cheaper the necessarles
of life to consumers.-P Phitddetl'hsG
Times.