The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-05-07
TO your honorable committee of ways
and meana bv the wool consumers com.

and means by the wool consumers com.
mittee themselves manufacturers) that
the Mckinley law has promoted largely
the adulteratiOn of wooden manufac-
lures. 1t is only necessary to state one
fact to show the falsity of their claim.
II all the wool in the country, domestic
and imported, outside of that used for
carpets, were made up into pure WOOL
ems, there would he only about 10000
600 pounds Of cloths, dress goods. blank
cts. hats and numerous other articles for
our 81 ,OOO. 900 people, II a little over IA
pounds for each individual. What sane
40 believes that 81, 200 900 pounds will
c0vus,all the goods that are sold to the
puA11H as all wool American manufac-
III : in a year! But we must not for
- that they have learned to manuflc,
turc wool by putting cast off clothi,s.
through a chemical process which eats
up all but the wool. and this residue is
REGARDED and used to mix with other
wool, but az the chemicals have eaten
the life out of it, there is no practical
difference between it and cotton.
With reference to the difference be-
tween American and foreign wages we
are prepared to prove that in many
branches our rates are eve below Eng
lish rates, and the same is true even Of
actual earnings. The rate paid now for
wooden weaving in the Huddcrsfield
England district varies from | cent
for = picks for plain work to / cent for
6 picks for fine work, with extra pay
for extra heddles, extra %cOlors, extra
beams, while the highest rate paid in
this country is | cent for 3 picks, but no
extras, which levels it down to the high
est English rate; but there are very
many. mills in this country, in fact
most Of them, that pay only | cent for
8 picks and less, Thus for 80 pick work
the English rate Is from 81 cents per
yard 10 10 cents per yard, extras to be
added, while the American rate is 6 to
II cents with no extras. If the Aneri.
IL weaver earns more money than the
English in Il week it is simply because
he works faster and turns out more
product.
The stubborn p"rverSity and dishon-
esty of the protectiOnist is nowhere bet
ter seen than in their steady refusal to
correct the most glaring Inconsistencies
and mi~schievous determinations of their
tariff laws, ever after their attention has
they dared not deny them. One is the
discrimination against American manu-
%facturcrs involved in the adjustment of
the duties between the raw materials
and the finished products. and the other
is the placing of u heavier tax upon the
poor mans necessities than upon the
rich mans luxuries. We called their
the spring of 1886, and the protection
list National Wooden Manufacturers as
ISOLATION pointed ont substantially the
same errors in their letter to the secre-
tary of the treasury in the fall of 1885.
and yet in the makeup of the Mckinley
law this Internal piece of injustice was
not only retained, but made worse than
ever. This shows that they had no idea
of perfecting AN act Of justice in n vi
ciously determined purpose to serve a
few masters. In fact, it appears to them
to be u pleasure to shift the burdens of
taxation off the shoulders of the rich
to those of the poOr-to make labor the
pack mule of the rich.
The cry of protectionist manufacture
ers nov is that the Mckinley law be let
alone because it is doing the manufac-
turcrs a great deal of good, yet in the
fact of this there has yet to be recorded
one important instance of advancing
wages, but the instances of wages being
pared down are numerous. This is
another evidence Of their false pretenses.
and such indispntable facts ought to
surely be sufficient to cause labor to
open its eyes to the real purpose of its
prOtcctiOnist friends--a purpose to serve
the rich at the expense of the toilers Of
the country and to impcl the toilcrs to
rise in their manhood to throw off the
shakes that bind them to their insidi-
Ous enemies.
We now declare, without fear of con
tradiction, that there is not IA WOODEN
manufacturer in Philadelphia who docs
not privately long for free wool, and
those who openly advocate taxed wool
are actuatcd by partisan rancOr, and we
are still more emphatic in the declaration
that there is not in Philadelphia one
wooden worker out of a hundred who
would not openly ask for free wool were
they all free from the sinister influences
of the bosses. As we prefer our own
prosperity and bread and butter to party
success we ask for free wool first with
out reference to its effects upon parties.