Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-08-15
The Wool and Wooden War.

The fight In the protectionlst camp
between the manufacturing protection.
ist who want free raw materials and the
raw material proteetI0nist who want
prohibitory duties levied is daily grow
1 ing hotter. Now that the late allies
against tariff reduction have fallen out
and are talking plainly to each other
the tariff reformer is saved a good deal
of trouble In proving his case. The
facts and arguments he needs are fur.
nished ready to hand by those who last
year were opposing him and vigorously
denying both his premises and conclu-
sions.
The wool growers and the woolen
manufacturers were in combination be-
fore HarrisOn's election; now they are in
opposition. Most of the wool growers
are dissatisfied with thier present sit
uatiOn and demand higher duties on
raw woods. Most Of the woolen manu-
facturers are still more dissatisfied with
their own situation and want lower
duties or no duties on raw woOls. The
wool growers make no pretense of car
ing for the interests of the manufactur-
ers; what they want is more money for
themselves and if the manufacturers
cannot afford to pay more for wool at
the present prices of goods they can
charge higher and make the public pay.
Like Gen. Harrison they have "no
sympathy with the cry for a cheap
coat" The wool manufacturers put
the matter in different light. They
say free raw materials would enable
them to enlarge their market in selling
as well as buying, increase their sales
and thus enlarge their purchases, bring
ing up the worlds price Ofraw wool and
thus benefiting the American wool
growers instead of injuring them. The
situation as viewed from the manufac-
turers' point of view is thus stated by
that stanch protective organ of the
woolen manufacturing interest, Hdde's
Fibre and Fabric:
l. There is not Onehalf the quantity
of wool grown in this country that
would be required for making, from
pure, new staple, the fabrics our peo-
pie demand and consumed.
2. There is no surplus production or
accumulation of wool in the world, not
withstanding the enormous and almost
constant increase in the quantity dur
ing the past thirty years, of fine woods
especially.
3. There is no danger of any surplus
for years to come under any possible in
crease, because wool is the best staple
the world has yet produced for the ser
vice of mankind and even in our own
country there has not been half enough
used for the bare comfort of our peo-
pie.
4. The variety in the qualities of
woods is almost infinite. Not only is
quality affected by the breed of sheep
but by care, feed, location, soil and eli
mate, a change in either of these con-
ditions will usually make a marked
change in the character of the staple
10 considerable extent the quality is
subject to the control of the sheen
breeder but in some respects it is beyond
his power to produce certain qualities
without an entire change of locality
and conditions which he cannot COM
mand.
5. Every kind of wool has a useful
purpose, and, as rule, one to which it |
is better adapted than any other. 1t is !
a bad or partial waste of material to at
tempt its use for the purpose where
it will not produce its best effects.
6. Every kind of wooden fabric re-
quires certain qualities in the staple to |
produce certain desired effects. They |
cannot be well produced by staple |
lacking these qualities. The required |
effect cannot at all times be found in |
any one quality and the manufacturer
is obliged to resort to mixtures in order
to get the right combination of quality
md to enable him to produce his goods
at price that consumers will pay.
7. 1t is idle to talk ofany one section
or country producing profitably all
qualities ofwool in quantity to fill the
of this country. Those
speakers and writers who for political
effect, or who by their faith or pride in
the bonndless resources of the coun-
try" are led to claim that we can
grow all the wool.we want, don't you
know what they are talking about.
They have evidently had very little ex-
perience in manufacturing the various
fabrics that our people insist upon hav-
ing. We might as we'll claim that
can grow all the food
and timber its people require. The
only way to accomplish such result in
either case would be to bring the wants
Of the people down to the supply, in en-
tire opposition to the spirit Of the age.
s. The history of the past fifty years
proves that prices for our home grown
clip have never been improved by in
creased duties upon the imported raw
material; that the effect has rather been
to curtail the demand from our own
mills, the only customers they can pos
sibly have under the adjustment of du-
ties now in force.
8. The present tariff is not only most
unjust in its distinctions and restrict
ions but practically it is prohibitory on
d large portion of the most desirable
wools which are available to our foreign
competitors free from tax. It isprotec-
tive to the European manufactures and
only in name to the home wool grow
ars.
, 10. These prohibited woods after be-
Ing manufactured abroad are exported
TO this country, paying comparatively
low rate of duty, decreasing in proper
ton to the labor expended upon them.
This is discouragement to the i'm
of American fabrics and on
The finer grades gives the foreign mills
a monopoly in our markets.
These are not "free trade fallaciesu
but the statements of a journal which
proclaims itself unswervingly protec-
zionist and which certainly has a right
to claim acquaintance with the effect
Of wool duties and on wooden trade. 1t