The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-04-02
THAT SHODDN.

Shoddy is duticd at 30 cents IA pound
It's importation should be prohibited
and 50 should its employment in wooden
unless the article in which the vile slut
enters be labeled ''shoddy" or par
shoddy," as the case may be. Sellin,
shoddy goods for pure wooden goods i
an imposition upon the public. We hav'
a law imposing penalties upon the manu-
facturers and sellers of oleomargarin,
unless such butter counterfeit be labeled
in large letters ''olcomargarine," Shoddy
is the bane of the American WOO
growers. 1t takes the place Of
their product and is mixed with
foreign long woods and the manu-.
featured articles are palmed off on an
u~nsuspecting. credulous public as all
wool goods.
The high duty on shoddy has practi,
cally stopped its importation but il
hasn't stopped its use by a large majority
According to the recent report of the
chairman of the house committee on
ways and means-Mr. Sprlnger-there
were "a establishments in 1890 which
annually manufactured 1N,OOO,OO0
pounds of shoddy. while the secured
wool product for the same year amounted
TO 100000 pounds. The report then
goes on to say: 1T thus appears that the
high protective tariff on wool has forced
manufacturers to use "a cheaper material
than wool. and the competition which
now threatens mostly the wool producers
of the country comes from the ninety
four establishments manufacturing
shoddy in the United States rather than
from wool grown in Australia and South
AMERICA
That 30 per cen duty on shoddy has,
it would seem, established d very thriv-
ing Infant industry in this country
which is annually taking millions of
dollars out of the pockets of our home
wool-growers. 1t would furthermore ap-
pear that Mr.. Mckinley S object in i'm
posing "a prohibitory duty on the vile
stuff was to give American shoddy mills
a monopoly Of the article. and not to
protect American wool-growers. Sheep
men of Montana. how do you like this:
The New York Evening Post in COM
mentlng upon the report says:
Remarkable as are these statements.
we doubt if the whole truth in respect
to the u-e Of shoddy and other inferior
and unfit substitutes for wool in this
country nave yet been made known to
the public. Evidence has been present
ed to us that the torn-up product of old
wooden rags and of cotton waste that
have been used for most offensive pur-
poses are passed directly into fabrica-
tons without any attempt at purifica-
ton, and hat such products, by reason
Of their c~heapness. have found their
way into general use.
1t is now in order to ask the consum-
ers of ''cheap clothing" how they like
this picture. No wonder Mr.. Mckinley
declared that cheap is a nasty word.
Several years G and before the shoddy
industry was protected in this country
large amounts of rags were imported into
the United States from Egypt to manu-
facture into shoddy. Egyptian rags
were cheaper than our home rags. They
had been well rotted upon the sweating
backs of the lousy. lazy beggers. and
thieves and %riff-ratf among the dusky
street providers of that country until
they dropped by their own weight from
the filthy persons of their wearers. The
strain upon the machinery employed to
pick them to pieces was insignificant
and hence they were much sought after
by our enterprising New England
.'woolen'' manufacturers.
OBut a pestilence broke out in Egypt
and our home market became glutted
with the article. About the same time
it was discovered that the large num-
bers Of the crews and passengers of the
ships which transported the rags had
been stricken down with the same dis
ease which carried off Egyptians by the
hundreds. Investigation showed that
the rags had been packed directly from
pest houses without an effort being made
to purify them. Our consul at Alex
andria was directed to use the means in
his power to stop the expectation OF
Egyptian rags unless they were accom-
panied by a clean bill Of health. This,
we believe, was some ten or twelve years
ago. Importations Of the nasty stuff
ceased for awhile, but Notwithstanding