The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-06-05

carpets used 50 largely by the people.
Ot course the temptation to cheaper
the fabric by the mixture of substitutes
Tor wool was great, But until within
. lew years the machinery emploved
would not admit OF the extensive use
OF what has of late years been used in
enormous quantities. the cheap cattle
hair, pretty much like that used for
mixing with mortar The ingenious
machines lately invented enabled man
uIacturers to use enormous quantities
OF cheap hair, cheap until the enOr-
nous demand for It with the increased
duties of the Mckinley bill on wool.
made it almost as costly, though not
nearly as good, as wool itself. Cotton
was used largely for the vFarps in place
of wOrsted.
The Mckinley bill seems to have a
special spite against carpet woods, and
those who wish to make or use wool
carpet All noiIs (the short 6bers OF
wool largely used for the vveft of car
pets) were excluded by the monstrous
duty OF thirty cents per pound GOO and
500 per cent in many cases), and the
tax on other materials was greatly in
creased Moreover, the arnbipuities OF
the law and some rather forced con-
structiOns of it by the treasury depart
ment have still further 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 du-
/ ties, obliged carpet manufacturers to
| advance the prices of carpets after the
passage of the Mckinley biu-an ad-
vance on all-wool carpets of about 10
per cent The effect of an increased
| cost of wool is at once to give an ad-
vantage and an opportunity to those
| who use cheaper materials, and so It
| st al inpre-aze.fT Of
cotton and cattle hair and of all kinds
of waste and shOddy and torn mp car
| pets
| The increase of price by the manu-
facturers may not have been fully felt
/ in the retail shops, because on staple
| 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-YvoOI
| carpets those with a greater or less pro-
| portion of cheap substitutes for wool
OF course if a person cannot afford to
pay for wool carpet there is no reason
/ why he should not have a cotton carpet,
| if he wants it; but then he might also
| put down common cotton cloth. There
| is no moral reason, perhaps Though
| Ruslzin would not admit it,, why he
| should not buy a tapestry carpet, made
chiefly of jute. with a veneering OF
printed wool; but if the duty on wool
had been taken off, instead 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 for
less than largely cotton and shoddy
ingram may sell for now,
Thus an article of general use has
been largely and needlessly increased
in price, although it might well have
been improved in quality and largely
reduced in cost by the free admission of
carpet woods, which would have hurt
almost no one and would have benefited
! every one.