The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1891-07-16
BY ALFRED r. LEE,

1 IehTO
80 much about the wool tariff that nc
would go out of his way to kick sheen
A good many wool growers in Ohio are
now in the same desperate state OF
| mlnd, except that instead of kickinp
the poor innocent sheep they would
kick the Mckinley law. Since the in.
ception of that law the prices of Ohio
and Michigan wool have declined about
three cents pound, and the imports OF
| clothing wool have increased fOur-fold
Ostensibly the Mckinley law intended
to make wool dearer. For this purpose
1t raised the duty on clothing WOO
about 10 per cent, and on the three
| grades of carpet wool from II, GG and
"a per cent. to 1877, 121 and no per cent
Common goat hair, of which carpets
are manufactured, was free under the
old law, but under the Mckinley law il
pays a duty Of
THREE HUNDRED PEE CENT.
Carpet wool, be it remembered, is q
| coarse grade which It will never pay to
produce in Ohio. Nine.tenths of the
amount consumed is imported.
In consequence of these increased
duties on raw materials the prices of
| carpets have been twice advanced about
III per cent. since the Mckinley act was
passed. Hence the Ohio farmer, while
ne gets less for his wool than he got
before, pays more for his carpets, or
does without them. Sir William Law
renee, the Bellefontaine Father of all
sheep, who has been manipulating the
wool tariff, says we may all of us do
without carpets.
Another effect Of the Mckinley wool
schedule has been to induce a good
many manufacturers either to import
their yarn instead of spinning 1t, or to
use cattle hair and shOddy as O. substi-
tute for wool. This, of course, reduced
the demand for domestic wool. while
hlllng the market with poor goods. Per.
haps the tariff zealots who buy this
snoddy and thereby help to swell the
dlVldends on watered stocks of the
trusts imagine themselves very much
more patriotic than their neiphbors.
VINO prefer an honest and genuine ar
ticle, even though of imported material.
but to the unbiased mind such patriot
ism seems to be about as much of n
humbug as the shOddY itself. When the
protected infantile mind reaches such a
state of drooling succulency as to pre-
fer sham and shoddy because it is
American" it is perilously near the
verge of hopeless idioCy.
But while we are discussing the
prices of wool, let us not forget two
very important facts, the first of which
Is, that the prices under prohibitorv
tariff are, to large extent, regulated
by monopolistic dictation, and not. as
they should be, by the natural laws of
trade. Such is, and was intended to be,
the case under the Mckinley law. That
law was gotten up bya gigantic ring of
monopollsts, for the benefit of monopo-
lies, and the farmers may rest assured
that these privileged dictators will. so
far as 1t lies in their power. put up
prices or put them down, as suits their
own interest and conscience.
The second fact to be remembered is
that while the wool growers of Ohio are.
at most few thousands, the wearers
OF clothes and the consumers of carpet
are about four millions. So far as con
Germs the people of Ohio, as a mass, it
would pay them better to retire every
sheep in the State on pension and pay
the three political pherds"-LaW-
renee, DelanO and Harpster-each a
salary of $1,000 besides, rather than put
up with the duties on wool and its pro
ducts, which the Mckinley bill
imposes. Relatively speaking the
Ohio wool-grower would get better
price for his product if it were abso- |
lutely free than he gets now, or ever
has got by reason of so-called ''protec- ]
ton" Moreover, the wooden goods he |
buys would be of better quality and |
relatively much cheaper than the old |
rag and cattle-hair product now palmed \
off on him by certain honored manu- /
facturers.
There is but one other civilized coun-
try besides this which taxes wool, and
that is Italy, the most grievously taxed |
country on the face of the earth. While |
we pay more, proportionately for our |
and carpets than Italy or any
other enlightened country pays, we 1
lave the further unique distinction of |
in this way to the enrich
nent OF powerful monopolies which /
,an afford to send champagne lobbies
n palace cars to Washington to fix the
Tariff to suit them, and then, in turn,
contribute literally for the purchase of
'foaters" for the benefit of the political
party with which they happen to be in
in the control Of the GOV
All of which is very gratifying, of
course, to people who like to be hum.
plugged and swindled.