The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-04-08
FREE WOOL AND THE LAsoRsR.

I
American " orkmen-It Would Close Up
| Hundreds of Factories Now Employed
In Making Wooden Goods, and Thus
Throw Many Thousands Out OF work.
It does not require much thought to
see the ruinous effect which the enact
meut of Mr.. Springer's bill, abolishing
the duty on wool and greatly reducing
the duties on its manufactures. must
have on American wool growing. The
] importation of S72, 900. 900 in wool man
ufactures in addition to the S4S, 100000
last year sent to this country flor Mr..
! Springer SAYS that the decrease in rev.
I, enue will have to be made up by in
creased importations, and on the basis
| of last years imports. this increase will
be at least S7a. OO0,o OO), Sis, 900, 900 in
all, would simply be the importation of
345, 900, 900 pounds of wool. though in a
manufactured form, to take the place
: of so much American wool in our mar
lSets. This quantity. increased by even
the amount of raw wool now annually
imported, 119, 900, 900 pounds-it would
/ doubtless be more under Mr.. Springer'S
/ free wool measure-would give a total
! of aga. coo, 900 pounds of wool that would
! come in. Deducting this quantity from
our total consumption of wool. 800, 0OO,-
600 pounds, we find that there would
remain n market for only 13f, 900. 900
pounds of the S03, 900, 900 pounds an
nually produced in this country. These
are the results which Mr.. Springer him
| self admits will follow from his wool
: and woolens bill. .fts. $500,
| But the farmer will not be the only
/ one injured The additional So. OOO, 900
: in manufactured wool which Mr.
! Springer SAYS would be imported under
/ the lower duties which he proposes
| would, of course, supplant an equiva-
lent quantity of American goods, and
( compel American wool manufacturing
adjustments to reduce their output
BY that amount Now, 81, 1000. 900 worth
of foreign goods at the undervalued
prices at which they are imported would
| be equivalent to at least 500. 900, 900
worth of domestic goods at American
wholesale prices. .tfef t...
American wooden and worsted mills
must, therefore, make 500. 600, 900 less
in goods than they make now. That
means that go. 900 mill hands which it
takes to make 500, 900, 600 in finished
products must lose their places and &c.
600, 900 in wages. Foreigners would do
the work and receive the pay. . ..
But Sl6, 000, 900 is only an insignificant
item in the great total loss which labor
would suffer from Mr.. Springer's ST.
900, 900 addition to our present imports
Of wool manufactures. II takes account
only of the wages paid for direct labor
in manufacturing. about 'one-fifth Of
the whole amount of labor involved
Take a piece of wooden cloth, trace it
back to its original elements before
they were touched by the hand of man.
commencing with the labor of shipping.
handling and placing on the shelf of the
jobbing house the finished piece of
cloth, following it through all the pro-
cesses in the factory, not forgetting the
labor of the engineers. fremen, watch
men. clerks, overseers employed about
the establishment, nor the labor in
volved in producing the coal, wood, oil.
belts, and the score or more of other
classes of miscellaneous supplies con-
sumed in the factory; then following
the raw wool as it is handled and trans
ported from farm to factory, including
the farmers labor of tending and shear
ing the focks, raising hay and grain
crops to feed them. not emitting even
the salt they cat and the labor of pro-
ducing it-if all of these and all other
elements of la Dor are counted. fully 80
per cent OF the wholesale selling price
of the goods, which we have placed at
500. 900. 600, represents labor cost of
production. In other words, Mr.
Springer would take $50, coo. 900 from
American labor in order that the
wOrsted and wooden mills and working
people of Bradford and Huddersfield
and English and Australian wool grow
ers might prosper.
To realize what this means to Ameri-
can industry generally. one has only to
imagine what the conditions would be
in any factory town if all the factories
should shut down. Every tradesman,
professional man, clerk, car driver, bar
Der, cook and cham bermaid in the place
would suffer. The town lives on the
wages received by the working people
which are spent for household neces-
saries and general supplies, and are
passed from hand to hand. inpartinQ
life and nourishment to all branches of
industry. The withdrawal of an an
nual disbursement OF $50, 600. 900 from
the channels of trade would be like
drawing corresponding proportion of
life blood from healthy body. The
results in both cases would be similar.
Activity would give place to inaction.
strength to weakness. health to Ian
gushing sickness That is what Mr.
Springer's measure means to labor and
its dependent interests.