The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-25
OUR WOOL INTERESTS
Fleeces Doomed by the Republic
can Victory.
BUT THE BOON DOESN'T KEEP UP.
A Utah Wool Mans Views on the Market
As 1t Stands and as 1t Is Likely
to Be.
BY j. W. sUMMERHAYs.

The HERALD asks, What has been the
past season, its present status and future
prospectss To answer all of these ques-
tions in detail would take more space, am
afraid, than you have to spare, and more
time than 1 can possibly devote to it; but
will do the best / can, and be as brief as
possible.
AS soon as it was known that the late
Presidential election went in favor of the
Republican candidate, "a feeling took posses
sion of large class of our citizens that
''wool was all right" and no matter what
the laws of supply and demand said we
were going to have ''boom in WOOL AS
the time approached for the Inauguration
of the President elect, the boom feeling
grew, and when Harrison took the reins of
government and the "free trade President
was ousted, thousands of growers and
dealers all over the country felt that they
were now safe. They did not, apparently,
stop to consider that Congress would have
to do something by way of changing our
present unjust wool, woolenS and worsted
tariff law before we could expect much
better times in wool. No, we had Re
publican President, and that seemed to be
all sufficient; consequently, when, month
or two later, the clip was ready for sale,
every wool centre in the country sent forth
a batch of excited buyers who were willing
to pay any price that they could buy at
In Utah and the territories, woods that
were bought at 10 to II cents per pound in
1888, brought 10 to 204 in 1889; and, mark
you, this was not confined to the terri
tories, but extended from Portland, Maine,
to Portland, Oregon. Chicago and St Louis
seemed to take the lead, with San Fran
cisco and Boston making a good second,
and Philadelphia and New York bringing
up the rear, with local dealers and specula-
tors everywhere joining in the grand rush.
The result was, the clip was bought up
quickly, and the season proved to be strictly
a growers" year. A few of the latter
held for higher prices and were not willing
to take 20 cents; they wanted 81 to %, but
some of these held too long; the market
"slumped'' on them and they have since sold
as low as 16 cents, making clear loss of
cents per pound.
After the clip was bought the purchasers
found it was more easy to buy at big
price than to sell at profit. They held
on bravely for a while, but soon found the
load was too much. When they would ap-
proach a manufacturer he would inform
them that he could get no more for his
goods than he was getting in 1888, and as
a. br
bly, pay 20 to 25 per cent. more for his wool
and run his mill, and the consequence was
that manufacturers all over the country
played the bear, because they had to, and
bought just enough to tide them over on
the orders they had instead of buying large
lines of wool and making goods ahead.
Several heavy failures in the wool, leather
and wooden goods trades made money tight.
Banks began to draw in their credits, and
the poor dealer who had bought few
months before with such ''rosy'' ideas had
to SELL and every time he sold he lost
money. Up to the present his thermome-
Ter has been going down. To show just
now the manufacturers felt during this
period, we quote from the american Wool
reporter OF OCUODer lUun:
''There has been fair inquiry for wool
Turing the past week, and while the mar
1et is now characterized by some degree of
irmness at the recent reduction of quota
ions, there is still severe pressure for
over prices on the part of buyers, and the
after are limiting their purchases almost
% daily requirements.
''Should the mills turn to heavy weights
EARLIER than usual, in order to keep busy
he machinery which is now in danger of
,rders for light weights, some dealers are
ooking for an improvement in territory
vools; but such course could not but be
worse for all parties in the end. With the
lightweight season unsatisfactory, any at
empt to force heavy weights upon the
,arly attention of the clothiers would be al
most suicidal"
Some one will say right here, we believe
IL you have said so far, but we should GER
ainly have better times ahead, for is it not
/ fact that the American clip is %, 1000, 900
o 25, 0O0,0 600 pounds short! Have not the
lealers on the Atlantic seaboard been send
ng foreign woods back to Englandl Are
lot Australian and New Zealand woods so
Ugh that they cannot be imported to-daya
And if this is all true, why don't we have
,etter times in wool and woolens? We
eply, Yes, all this is true, and much more
hat you have not mentioned, and we will
nswer you by saying, until you get an
American market for American wool YOU
will see no better times. Stopit this contin-
led strife that is going on between the
ROVER and the manufacturer. Pull to
ether for the interest of all parties con-
erned, and bear in mind that unless the
american spindle" is kept running
american woods will not be marked up.
When the first cost of the wool to
he American manufacturer is as much
S his English neighbor can place
he finished goods on our market |
or, or when our manufacturer runs |
is mills to compete with his English |
rother he is forced to use tops and waste |
,ade by said English brother, instead of
uying our homegrown woods, or as much |
them as he can use. We say when such
state of affairs as this exists we think
nat all parties concerned should use a
nited effort to correct the evil, and either
i've US free trade or equitable protection.
anything further is needed to convin e
ur friends of the truth of this position we
sfer them to the following clipping from
ne Boston Herald of December 9th:
'"The strength of the market abroad is
cry sensibly felt in the market for delaine
nd combing woods, and buyers have
ought them out to greater extent than
as been previously noted this season. A
wv more weeks of such a trade will render