The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-12-27
THE WOOL TARIFF.

One of the least defensible of the tariff
schedules is that relating to wool
Under pretense of desiring protection
for the farmer, the manufacturers OF
woolens long ago persuaded the wool grow
ers to demand duty of 10 cents a pound
on washed wool. AS a compensation to the
| cloth manufacturers for having to pay this
much more for the wool they used, an
additional duty of IS to so cents pound
was then placed on imported wooden cloth.
| The manufacturers did indeed have to
pay more for their imported wool than be.
fore, but they found it impossible both to
pay higher prices for foreign and for home.
grown wool at the same time, and still re
main in the business of wooden manufac-
ture. As they could not lower the price of
foreign wool, they must either lower the
price of homegrown wool or quit the bust
ness. Naturally enough, they tried the
former alternative, and as a result the
price of home grown wool has been fall.
ing ever since the advance in the duties on
wool.
Mr., GEORGE WILLIAM BOND was en-
ployed by the treasury department. to make
up series Of sets of samples for the use of
the appraising officers in the various GUS
tom houses. The sets furnished by him
consisted Of 40 separate samples of wool,
each clearly distinct in class and QUALITY
from the rest.
Now, in order that the manufacture of
woolens be carried on at all successfully,
the manufacturer must have great VARIETY
of these differing kinds of raw material.
1t is not possible to make good cloth with.
out considerable admiXture of woods.
Our own country does not produce all the
necessary varieties; no country does; and
no other civilized nation besides ours
places tariff on raw wool, for this very
reason.
1t IS not surprising, then, that the high
priced foreign wool, which the manufac-
turer must have, causes the home wool to
decline in price, so that scarcely year
passes in which foreign wool merchants do
not buy up large quantities of wool raised
in the United States, because it is often the
cheapest in the world.
Though the people of this country use
great deal of fine wooden cloth. vet this is
the one country in the world that does not
manufacture fine wooden goods to any great
extent and last year we imported about
S45, O0O 900 worth
Senator SHERMAN in 1888, protection
ist, said of the effects of the wool tariff:
''In 1867 the price of wool was 81 cents: in
1870, 46 cents; in 1878, which was an alb
normal year, 40 cents per pound This was
the result of the policy of protecting the
wool grower, as it is in all Industries. to
gradually reduce the price, Under the on
Grafton OF the existing law (the tariff of
1867, the price of wool has gradually gone
down.
1t is perfectly true that the wool tariff
has reduced the price of home wool. Brad
streets summed up the situation for 1889 as
follows: 'Prices abroad are to 8 cents
higher than they were year ago, and at
home they are and have been practically
unchanged''
That is, while foreign manufacturers
raised the price Of foreign wool in their
bidding for it, and even en-
tered our markets to buy up American
wool, all this time American wooden mills.