Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-03-14
II rs AN AGE OF SH0DDY.
WHY DIFFICULTY is FOUND IN GET
TING A GOOD COAT OR CARPET.

The Shoddy Business Grows Immensely
with Each Year, and the Makers of
Tariff Laws.
Considerable comment was excited in
the last presidential election by one of
President Harrison's speeches in which
he declared that he had little sympathy
with the demand for cheap coats, for a
cheap coat, he claimed, usually covers a
cheap man.
President Harrison was right in one
sense. A man who has to wear a coat
that is threadbare and out at the elbows
loses his self respect. He feels humili-
ased when men look at his sho,ldy gar
.2.ant and make remarks about its seedy
appearance. He feels cheap.
But cheap coat and a shabby coat are
not the same thing. No man who wears
a good coat becomes cheap man simply
because he bought his coat at Mr.. Wanna
makers bargain counter. Like the
flowers that bloom in the spring, that
has nothing to do with the case.
But why is it SO hard to get cheap
coat of good quality?
The answer is simple: 1t is shoddy.
1t is not generally known to what an
extent the shoddy business is carried on
in this country, nor how the business
has come to regard itself as one of the
legitimate industries of the country. In
1870 the shoddy mills of the United
States used 100000 pounds of raw
shoddy, and in 1880 they used SO. 90, 900.
There are more than 100 shoddy mills in
the United States, and about 500, ZOO, 000
is invested in these enterprises and in
handling rags.
The cause of this remarkable develop
ment affords a curious illustration of
how a congressional committee can be
hoodwinked by those who have axes of
various kinds to grind. In 1875 the
Joint executive committee of the wool
growers and the wool manufacturers
asked for duties which Disseminated
heavily against the ordinary cheap
clothing, such as is worn by the great
majority of the people. They gave as
an excuse for this request their desire to
protect the American working people
from foreign shoddy goods.
''These goods" they said, ''if admitted
at moderate duties, would take the place
of our sound clothes" They further told
! the committee that the American manu-
facturer would be compelled to "fabri-
cate their goods of the same worthless
material or surrender the business to the
foreigner"
Now, then, what was the action of the
committee in view of this estate of
things?"
To prevent the deplorable results
pointed out by the growers and the
manufacturers the committee recon-
mended duty of 70 cents pound on
importations of foreign shoddy, and, in
order to make their action still more
effective, duties ranging from so to 100
per cent. were placed upon the imports
of manufactures of shoddy. The petit
TONERS, as usual, had gotten what they
asked for; to those who had knocked the
| doors were opened.
But note now the consequences: Now
that America was to be no longer the
| dumping ground for European shoddy,
our own manufacturers rushed with
eager haste into the shoddy business
| themselves Already in 1880 the shoddy
used by American mills had grown to
three times the quantity used in 1870
| and the census of this year will show
| that the same rate of increase has been
more than maintained. On the 9Th OF
last October, The Philadelphia Record
reported that: ''During the last seven
months the imports of wooden rags and
shoddy were more than doubled in guam
tity and value in comparison with the
imports in the corresponding period OF
| 1885,"
The shoddy business now considers
itself one of the legitimate claimants fol
protection. Two years ago the shoddy
men went before the senate committee
with the INTENT" they said, "merely OF
setting forth a few of the questions which
are of vital importance to the labor in
Jerest."
They submitted report in which they
attacked the Mills bill with all their venom
| and they would hear nothing of free wool.
Free wooden rags were also an object of
their ire. A free wooden rag shaken at
them had the effect that the red rag of
the Spanish bull fighter has on a mad
bull. They predicted that if these wooden
rags and wool extracts were put upon
the free list, the American manufactures
of shoddy would ship their stock to Eu-
rope, there have it worked up and re-
turned to this country. "And the cost,
they curiously confessed, would not be
more than one-half of what it costs
now"
So, then, we not only wear our Amer
lean manufactured shoddy, but we pay
according to this confession of the shod
dy makers, double what the cost would
be under free raw materials. Even
slloddy rests upon the tariff and pleads
its right to the home market Two
years ago the Republican national com
mittee sent out circular signed by sew.
enteen firms of shoddv manufacturers
in which these men protested strenu-
ously against the free wool offered the
country by the Mills bill.
''This BILL" they said, Gas far as il
affects the industry in which we are en-
gagged, is a free trade measure, and as
such we are decidedly opposed to it.
| We have determined in the coming cleo
ton to support the candidates of the pro.
lection party, Harrison and Morton
Their election we consider to be indis-
pensable to the maintenance of our bust
ness
The development Of this shoddy bust.
ness has had very wide reaching results,
The figures of the census of 1880 show
that 10S pounds Of shoddy are mixed
with every 11S pounds of pure wool te
make our SO called wooden goods.
L. is also true that the ratio of shoddy
IN carpets has been increasing rapidly