The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-07-27
Tbc Tariff on Wool.
The Systcm which Places the Burden
ofTaxat0a Oh the People.
From thc nctrolt tNIlchA News.

Those farmers in Michigan who
own sheep are now supposed to be
getting the benefit of the duty on
wool in the increased price they
are receiving. They are willing to
be taxed on their tools, their cloth
ing, their food, their house furnish
ing,their fence boards and even
the nails that hold them to their
posts, for the sake of the profit that
the tariff enables them to pocket
on their wool.
And yet the record kept by f. a.
Dewey, of Cambridge, Mich, of the
prices for which he has sold his
wool during the past fifty years,
and published in YNe People Cause,
a tax reform journal, shows that
between 1916 and 1SG0-low tariff
years-his wool averaged 3S cents
II pound, as against an average of 80
cents u pound between 1867 and
iS77-high tariff years. just now
prices vary 10 to 20 cents for un-
washed and from % to 80 cents for
washed-and an average below
any of the above figures.
George w. Bond, Il wool expert,
agrees with MIR. Dewey. He says:
"Our fine woods have always been
higher, other things being equal,
when we are able to freely import
woods of other countries at a low
duty or no duty at all" This is the
secret of good prices for Ameri-
can wool under low tariff. "The
American manufacturer must have
the power" wrote the National
Association Of the Wool Manufac-
lures to Secretary Manning in
1885, "of selecting II portion of his
raw material from all the worlds
source of supply" in order to COM
pete with foreign manufacturers
"for the possession of the markets
of this country" Not for the pos.
session of foreign markets; that
was out of the question. But for
the possession of the home mark
cts.
The best results in wool manu-
facture are attained by mixing diff
ferent grades. No two countries
produce the same kind of wool.
Soil and climate create differences
that cannot be overcome. The
foreign manufacturers have the
whole world from which to choose
their raw material. The manu-
facturers Of the United States are
not granted this privilege, and in
consequence depress the home
market by every artifice in their
power in order to compensate them
for the duty they are compelled to
pay on their imports. Besides, an
Dverabundance of one kind of wool
makes that kind cheap. There is
more Of it than can be proiitably |
used. So the price of American
wool is depressed by the very in
strument intended to make il more
valuable.
In 1867 there were 2S, 800, sl5
sheep in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsyl-
vania, New York, Indiana, Illinois
Wisconsin and Iowa. In 1887 the
number had decreased to l2,SlO,56O.
What Il wonderful stimulus the
tariff must have been to the wool
industry in those States! 1t has
had the same effect, also, on the
country at large. In 1867 there
were 80, 3s5, 38G sheep in the Unit
ed States; in 1870 the number had
decreased to 3f,SOf,200. In 1884 it
was 40,G2G,G2I, in 1888 43,j44, ,756-
an increase of 4,159,379 under
twenty years of protection. The
wool clip has increased from 1GQ,-
100000 in 1876 to 265,00O,000 in 1887,
the average weight of fleeces being
ii pound heavier. But this is due
to improved methods Of breeding,
and is as marked in free trade as
projected countries.
The persistence Of an economic
error is shown in no case more
plainly than III the tenaoity with
which the American farmer clings
to system of taxation that com
pels him to bear the greater part
pf the burden Of government, sad
dies him with monopolies, and is
Fapidly driving him into the class
of tennn farmer.
Abolish the Check Reign.
The indianapolis News has
taken up the cudGels against tight
check reigns, saying in IL recent