Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-05-21
THE CARPET WOOL TAX.
VIEWS OF A FOREMOST NEW ENG
LAND MANUFACTURERS.


Mr.. Arthur T: Lyman, of the Lowell
Manufacturing company, Boston, Mass,
who is one of the largest and most Sue
cessful manufacturers of carpets in New
England, was recently asked by men,
Der of the New York Reform club to
give his views on carpet manufacturirg
as affected by the wool tariff. The posi-
ton of Mr.. Lyman as foremost manu-
facturer of carpets gives his views an
authority which no outside testimory
can command.
Mr.. Lyman says:
Carpets and their prices are of general
interest in the United States, for though
rare Injuries not very many years ago
they have become articles almost Of
common necessity. The general state
Of well being in this country of ener-
getic people and of great natural wealth
has afforded great market for tie
products of the wonderful loom in
vented by Bigelow, aud first put into use
at the Lowell Carpet company, at Low
ell, Mass, and Of many other ingenious
preparatory machines.
These labor saving inventions and the
universal demand have caused an i'm
mense production and low prices, and
the great competition of late years has
left TO the manufacturers generally bur
little profit and not seldom a loss.
Substantially all of the wool used il
making carpets comes from abroad, and
chiefly from Russia, Asia Minor, Persia.
India and Snr%b II.
are chiefly long, coarse woods. and being
raised under favorable natural condi-
tons. and by people whose modes of life
are very inexpensive, they are of very
low cost The necessity for revenue
from any and every source during the
civil war after a time caused a con-
siderable duty 10 be placed on carpet
woods, avowedly for revenue. When
the war was over and the debt had been
greatly reduced, and many taxes Were
taken off, this heavy tax on carpet woods
was unfortunately left. Ii had not
caused the raising Of carpet woods in
this country, because other woods and
other products could be raised to much
greater advantage, and because the con-
dltlons existing here were not favorable.
The tax on this admirable material
considerably increased the cost OF the
| carpets used so largely by the people.
OF course the temptation to cheaper the
fabric by the mixture of substitutes for
wool was great. But until within a
few years the machinery employed would
not admit of the extensive use of what
has of late Years been used in enormous
| quantities, the cheap cattle hair, pretty
! much ike that used for mixing with
mortar. The ingenious machines lately
| invented enabled manufacturers to use
enormous quantities of cheap hair,
| cheap until the enormous demand for
! 1t, with the increased duties Of the Nc
kinley bill on wool, made It almost as
| costly, though not nearly as good. a.
wool itself. Cotton was used largely for
the warps in place of worsted-
The Mckinley till seems TO have a
special spite against carpet woods, and
those who wish to make or use wool car
pet. All noils Cthe short fibers of wool
largely used for the weft of carpets) were
excluded by the mOnstrous dnty of thirty
cents per pound GOO and 800 per cent.
in many cases. and the tax on other ma
terials was greatly increased. More
over, the antiquities of the law and
some rather forced constructions Of it by
the treasury department have still fur
Their increased costs, and so multiplied
doubts and questions that there are few
kinds Of carpet wool the duty on which
can be surely known.
These increased difficulties and i'm.
pediments and the largely increased
duties obliged carpet manufacturers to
advance the prices Of carpets after the
passage of the Mckinley bill-an advance
on all wool carpets Of about 10 per cent.
The effect of an increased cost of wool Is
at once 10 give an advantage and an
opportunity to those who use cheaper
materials, and so it greatly stimulates
the increased use Of cotton and cattle
hair, and of all kinds Of waste and
shoddy and torn up carpets.
The increase ot price by the manu-
| facturers may not have been fully felt
! In the retail shops, because on staple ar
ticles the retailer is slow TO advance
prices until his old stock is gone. and
! because his margin of profit enabled
| him still to sell without loss, which was
not the case with the manufacturers, or
because he substituted for. the all wool
| carpets those with greater or less pro-
| portion Of cheap substitutes for wool.
| OF course if one cannot afford to paw
| for wool carpet there is no reason why
he should not have cotton carpet, if lie
wants 1t; but then he might also put down
common cotton cloth. There is no moral
reason perhaps Though Ruskin would
not admit it, why he should not buy a
tapestry carpet, made chiefly of jute,
with veneering of printed wool; but if
the duty on wool had been taken off in
stead of having been largely increased
the price Of the best Brussels carpets,
instead of being put up ten cents yard,
might have been reduced ten or fifteen
cents a yard, and an all wool ingram or
extra super carpet might have been sold
i for lass than a 1arpalyl cotton and cb0d-