The Forrest City times., 1891-04-10
THE TARIFF ON WOOL.
HOW M'KINLEY'S WOOL DUTIES
 WORK.

Higher Duties on Carpet Wool and Higher
 Praces for Carpets-What the Manufact-
 ursrs ssy-why Fine Ohio wools Arc
 observation-disclosures Becoming Frss- . Traders.
 Mir. Arthur T. Lyman, of the Lowell Manufacturing Co.,, Boston, points out that the Mckinley duty on carpet wool has caused an increase of 10 per cent. in the price of Sool carpets "This ad- vance," he says, "was owing purely to the Mckinley wool duties, and no ad- Vance would have taken place if the bill had not been passed. If the duty on wool had been removed, the price of car pets would have been reduced"
 In private letter Mir Lyman says; SAs to the prices of carpets, we know ehe effect of the Mckinley duties per fectly, because we practically fix the price of carpets for the trade, and we felt that we could hardly hold our old prices if the Mckinley bill did not pass. It is an immense annoyan but for the moment 1t helped us, because we had bought big stock of wool before 1t passed" MT. Lyman also calls attention to the fact that practically all the carpet wool used in this country is imported, our sheep growers not finding it profit Able to produce carpet wool worth from 10 to Is cents pound. while they can grow better goods suitable for clothing and worth from IS to 34 cents.
 "At one of the heari gs in Washington on the wool duties," says Mir. Lyman, .Col. Shepard, of Texas, Is reported to have said that he knew very we that the shepherd kings of Ohio wished to have Texas and the Terr tories raise carpet wool, so that they should not in terfere with Ohio fine wool, but that for himself, he would guarantee not to raise carpet wools, knowing, of course, that they would not pay.
 ! Mckinley raised the duty on carpet wools, "and that" said he, "has necessi- tated an increase of the duty on carpets themselves. Accordingly carpet duties were raised from equivalent ad valorum Duties of 40 to 60 per cent. to duties reaching from 50 to S5 per cent But oven the old duties, as Mr. Lyman points put, practically excluded carpets; yet this exclusion, he says. has not made them as cheap as in Europe, sin spite of the excessive competition at home which has made the business unprofitable. [ The only thing that stands in the way NA M0nAh6 NoA PCto Aatu IAcdpOl 10 suO Senseless duty on carpet wools, These Duties are 32 per cent. on the cheaper Wools and 50 per cent on the higher grades
 As we do not raise carpet wool the only reason why the Ohio political shep- herds wanted a higher duty on 1t was to prevent the American people from mak- Ing their clothing out of it; and, as shown above, to force Texas and the Territories to raise it and thus withdraw them from competition with Ohio in clothing wools. In this way it was hoped by the Ohio clique that the higher duties on clothing wools and on carpet wools would have the effect of raising the price of the Ohio product Such. however, has not been the result. On the con- erary, the clothing wools of Ohio and Michigan are lower in price than usual, and the tendency among the manufactur- CTS is to use more largely the high-priced Australian wools, despite the increased Mckinley duties
 Why is this? The Amerfcun Wool Re- porter supplies the very simple answer. 1t says: Manufacturers have found that by buying Australian wool even at 42 or 4319c per pound, and mixing it with territory, Texas or California they can attain better results and at q cheaper cost than by buying Ohio xx wool even At 33 or s31ac. This also accounts for the fact that territory woois have teen so unusually well cleaned up this year. Manufacturers have neg ected domestic deeces, and If the present state of things continues 1t will not be long before deal CTS in Ohio wools in Eastern markets will be few and far between. With the Increased duty on wooden goods, manu. lecturers can mako finer grade of goods without coming in com petition with those of foreign manu- facture, and 1t is quite likely, as things look now, that Australian wool will be more and moro in demand as the time goes on. The manufacturer prefers Australian wool even at the advanced cost Why? Because it is put up bet ter; 1t Is cleaner; it shrinks less; there is less waste and there are fewer tags ir 1t than in domestic fleece. It does no, contain so many tarred ends, so many pounds of strings. and so much bury stuff as Ohio and Michigan fleeces."
 The Reporter warns the Ohio and Michigan growers that they must i'm prove the condition of their WOO anC not depend solely upon the tariff to n sure higher prices. "A high tariff alone, 1t says, twill never ing domestic fleece: into favor and increase the demand therefor. The domestic growers art realizing this through expo rlence | domestic wool, which comes in com peti tion with foreign, Is to sel there mus be an improvement in the present meth ods of producing and preparing 1t fol market"
 A correspondent of the same journal who is evidently a manufacturer, ex plains tho matter moro in detail. Ht says;
 @In order to produce goods at the low est cost, 1t Is necessary to obta a maxi mum of production, as the grea1er tht number of yards turned off the lowel the cost of production per yard. It i tho aim, therefore, of the average mann f8cturer to make as nearly as possible one line of goods. and his purchases O wools are with the view of getting tn, quality, or leading sort, required t, mel ke such goods. If Michigan or Oni, wools are purchased, and a strictly clear fine sort is required, not more than hal and frequently a smaller percentage 0 such sort is obtained from fleece. ant the undesirable qualities accumulate from month to month, until, alarmed a the quantity, the manufacturer make other grades of goods to consume thi accumulation, and dispose of them at loss.s
 It is we'll known that the oppressiv wool tariff is rapidly making free trader of our most energetic and progressiv manufacturers MT. Lyman, alread quoted, says: Probably more than 50, OOO, GOO of the people of this countr