Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-17
STOCKED UP AHEAD.
How Tinkering With the Tariff Has
Hurt the Woolen Goods Trade.
ENGLISH WokSTEDs IMPORTED.
Mr.. Logan Says Money is Being Sunk in
Oil Drilling These Days.
A FEW TALKS WITH LOCAL CITIZENS

There is woe in the camp of the wool men
and the woolen fabric makers, if what Mr..
L. T. Humphrey, of Boston. says is true
and it is all on account of the yearly tink.
ering with the tariff Mr.. Humphrey is
wool buyer for an Eastern company, and he
comes to Pittsburg often, generally stopping
at the Monongahela House, where ne was
seen yesterday. His company buys ex-
tensively in the wool cohnties of Ohio and
Pennsylvania, but this year their purchases
have been only one-half what they were last
season. Said Mr.. Humphreys, in discussing
the subject:
'Of the New England woolen factories
one-half are closed down, and the country
has been flooded with the worsted goods Of
English manufacturers. They have stored
away great quantities of such clothing in
bonded warehouses here, and if the tariff
bill is passed they will make money on their
sale, and if it is not they won't lose much,
il, indeed. they will suffer financially at all.
In the event of the latter alternative they
can still sell them under the present tariff
or ship them back to England at small
cost.
WAITING FOR DEVELOPMENTS.
''The Mckinley bill provides for a ma
terial increase in the duties on woolen goods
and slight advance on wool which doesn't
amount to much. At the beginning of the
year the manufacturers started out to do
business on an extensive scale, but when the
hitch on the tariff bill occurred in the Sem
ate they stopped short, and are still waiting
to see what will be DONE This years
trade has been spoiled. The makers
admit that the proposed duty on
woolen articles is practically prohib-
itory, and they are satisfied with it. Such
quantities of clothing are imported
that our business is almost ruined. Every
man who goes to Europe comes back with a
replenished wardrobe-enough, indeed, to
last him for several years. This is one
method by which the American trade
suffers.
1.-THE wool buyers have stopped purchas-
ing, and the price of wool has gone down.
This is how the constant tariff tinkering in
jures the farmer. In 1888 the price of wool
dropped to 25 cents pound, and then we
bought heavily, for we knew that even if we
were to have free trade we couldn't lose
anything. Fine wool, like that raised in
Washington county, is now selling for %
cents, and medium, or Mercer county wool,
brings from 81 to 80 cents a pound.
At the beginning of the year
amounts at that price, but we couldn't be
induced to buy pound Of wool at present,
even with the reduced rates.
JUST WHAT THEY WANT.
"What the wool growers and the manu-
facturers want is certainty-either tariff
or no tariff. If it is no tariff they will know
how to figure and labor and other things
must come down to foreign basis. As 1t
is, the woolen goods makers are sitting back
waiting, and losing money until the Senate
can decide to do something. Senator Quay
is right when he insists on an immediate
settled and muddled, and the tariff measure
Is more important than the others
"Whv, last year, as the result of this
constant tariff agitation, fannels were sold
at loss of from 10 to 20 per cent. Men
will not be caught that way a second time,
if they can help it. Those manufacturers
who are working now will only get out their
samples aud make enough goods to fill their
orders. 1t is too hazardous for them to
branch out. You can easily see just how
much the workmen and capitalists lose by
this inactivity.
.When Representative Mills says that
the New England mechanics insist on free
raw materials he doesn't know what be is
talking about. The Eastern mechanic
is an intelligent man, and he realizes
that If he demands free materi-
ais the West will ask for
free goods. It is this fact that keeps the
Republican party together on the tariff
question. We shouldn't legislate for one
section of the country at the expense of an
other, and the New England workman
doesn't advocate such policy. 1 wish this
tariff question could be settled, one way or
the other, for ten years at a time. We could
do something then, because we would know
that we had certain law to work under"