Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-12-12
EFFECT OF FREE WOOL.

| Cleveland Leader, Nov. 2S-
Protection of the wool industry and
free trade in carpet wool are not only
inconsistent but antagonistic PROPOSE
tions The two things cannot exist al
the same time. This is true because, to
very large and constantly increasing
extent, so-called "carpet woods" are en-
ployed for the same purposes as cloth
ing wool. Millions of pounds of wool
for making cloth are annually imported
at very low rate of duty as ''carpet
WOOL" and the improvement in the kinds
of wool that may be imported under that
head is SO constant and great as to
threaten the prosperity if not the exist
ence Of our home wool producing in
dustry.
1t is for this reason that the theOreti-
cal free traders and some of the Eastern
manufacturers are SO persistent in their
demands for ''free carpet WOOL" They
know that it means, practically and in
the end, free trade in wool used for near
reason that the wool growers of the
United States, and all who believe in the
policy of protection, earnestly insist up
on higher duty on carpet woods, and
such reform of the wool schedule as
will make the tariff fully protective on
all kinds of wool that may prOftably be
produced at home.
Uia .,f hn
subject have been fully expressed in the
resolutions of the National Farmers
Congress, which recently met at Mont
gomery, Ala; in the resolutions of the
Pennsylvania State Wool Growers As
sociation adopted at Pittsburgh on Mon
day; and in the address of the Ohio
Wool Growers Association adopted at
Columbus on Tuesday. All of these
bodies were unanimous in demanding
full protection for the wool industry of
the United States and opposing free car
pet woods. The address of the Ohio wool
growers to the public contains some
points that are of special as well as gen.
eral interest. 1t sets forth very forcibly
the fact that through the injudicious re-
vision of the wool schedule in 1888, on
both wool and woolens, the importatiOns
of raw and manufactured wool now ag
gregate an equivalent Of 366,0O0,0OO
pounds of unwashed wool, as compared
with home production of 24O,OOO,00O
pounds. The effect of this is to drive,
in large measure, American flOck-own-
ers out of the business and compel them
to produce wheat in excess of the home
demand, which must be sold in Europe
in competition with the product of the
cheap labor of India and Russia. With
a properly protective tariff on wool we
would produce enough of that article to
supply the home demand and less wheat,
whereby the normal condition of pro-
duction would be established. A further
beneficial effect would be the cheapen-
ing of meat products, through the rails
ing of sheep better adapted for mutton,
as is done in England.
The address also contains point of
special interest to the minority of man
ufacturers who are crying for free wool.
1t notifies them in explicit terms that
1.-The people will not maintain protec-
tive policy fora comparatively few wool
en- manufacturers where the interests of
a vastly greater number of persons de-
pendent on the wool industry are sacri-
feed That is quite true. Free wool
would mean free woolens and the de-
;truction of wool manufacturing as well
as wool growing in this country. The
wool growers and the wool manufactur-
ers must stand or fall together, and the
latter will consult their own interests by
making a note of the fact. 1t is with
satisfaction we observe that the great
majority of them take the right view of
this matter