Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1892-04-06
FREE WOOL AND THE LAeoee.


what MT. springer's Bin would NJ.
American workmsn-it Would Cio.. n,
Hundreds OF Factories Now Emplov.,
In Making WOODEN Goods. and Th..
Throw Many Thousaods Out OF WorI.
1t does not require much thought 20
see the ruinous effect which the enact.
ment of Mr. Springer's bill, abolishinr
the duty on wool and greatly reducin,
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. 900 600
last year sent to this country flor Mr.
Springer says that the decrease in rev.
enue will have TO be made up by In.
creased importations. and on the basi,
of last years imports. this increase will
be at least s12. 600. 00o). sil5. 600. 900 in
all. would simply be the importation of
345, 900, 900 pounds of wool, though in n
manufactured form, to take the place
of so much American wool in our mar.
kets- This quantity. increased by even
the amount of raw wool now annually
imported, l19. 600, 600 pounds-it would
doubtless be more under Mr.. Springer's
free wool measure-would give total
of 49,. 900, 900 pounds of wool that would
come in. Deducting this quantity from
our total consumption of wool. 600, 900.
600 pounds, we find that there would
remain n market for only is6, OOO. 600
pounds of the 500. 900, 600 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.
But the farmer will not be the only
one injured. The additional S72, 600 600
in manufactured wool which Mr.
Springer says would be imported under
the lower duties which he proposes
would, of course, supplant an equiya-
lent quantity of American goods. and
compel American wool manufacturing
establishments TO reduce their OUTPUT
by that amount Now, sT2, 900. 900 worth
OF foreign goods Mt the undervalued
prices at which they are imported would
be equivalent to ut least SiO0, 600 900
worth of domestic goods ut American
wholesale prices.
American wooden and worsted mills
must, therefore, make 500, 600. 900 less
in goods than they make now. That
means that go, 1000 mill hands which il
takes to make 500. 600. 900 in finished
products must lose their places and sl6,-
0O0 600 in wages Foreigners would do
the work and receive the pay.
But Sl6, 600, 900 is only an insignificant
item i'll the great total loss which labor
would suffer from Mr.. Springers s7e,.
100000 addition to our present imports
of wool manufactures. 1t takes account
only of the wages paid for direct labor
in manufacturing, about one-fifth of
w M Of al,
Take n piece of wooden cloth, trace /.
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-
ccsses in the factory, not forgetting the
labor of the engineers, firemen 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 fioclSs, raising hay and grain
crops to feed them, not emitting even
the salt they eat and the labor of pro-
ducing tiff all of these and all other
elements of labor are counted, fully so
per cent of the Wholesale selling price
of the goods, which we have placed at
100000, 600, represents labor cost of
production. In other words Mr.
Springer would take $50, 600, 900 from
American labor in order that the
worsted and wooden mills and working
people of Bradford and Huddersfeld
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 il all the factories
should shut down. Every tradesman,
| professional man, clerk, car driver bar
| Der, cook and chambermaid 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 imparting
life and nourishment to all branches Of
| industry. The withdrawal of an an
nual disbursement of $50, 900 600 from
the channels of trade would be like
drawing corresponding proportion of
life blood from n healthy body. The
| results in both cases would be similar.
Activity would give place 20 inaction,
| strength to weakness health to Ian
gushing sickness That is what Mr..
| Springers measure means To labor and
its dependent interests
i Hi ParLiu. and ur.Ilso- H..-.ttu