Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-29
PULLING THE WOOL
Over the Eyes of the Voters on the
Question of the Tariff.
REPORT OF SPRINGER'S MAJORITY
Attacking the Sheep Industry of Several
of the Great States.
BURROWS GIVES THE MINORITY VIEW

pared and will be presented to the House
tomorrow. The majority report was pre-
pared by Mr.. Springer and the minority re-
report by Mr.. Burrows, of Michigan.
The majority report says the Mckinley
bill was passed with enormous rates of
duties, many of them prohibitory and all of
them unreasonably high. The report con-
tinues:
There can be no good reason for maintain
ing such high taxes upon articles which are
so necessary to the health and comfort of
the people. A peculiar feature of these
rates is that owing to high rates per pound
and per square yard added to the ad valorem
rates, the duties were highest upon the
cheaper grades of goods worn by the masses
OF the people and lower upon high priced
/ goods worn by those in better circumstances.
y twenty-five per cent was all the protec-
ton that wool manufacturers in 1867 asked
in order to enable them to compete success
fully with their foreign rivals: but 1t seems
in the case of woolen goods, as in all others,
the amount of protection required increases
from year to year. As the industries get
older and better established more protec-
tion is demanded
How the Rates Are Apportioned.
The rates proposed in the bill submitted
are fixed with due regard to the labor, cost
of production and the necessities of con-
sumers. The lowest rates are placed upon
goods upon which the least labor has been
bestowed and which are consumed by the
greatest number Of people.
Statistics are printed in support of this
statement In considering the effect of the
act of 1867 on sheep husbandry, the report
SAYS:
In 1865 there were G, 7So 900 sheep in Ohio; in
1890 there were only S,9l3 900 reported, while
in 1891 the number was given at 406l 000
Similar results took place in all of the other
States east of the Missouri and Mississippi
rivers The increase of the number of sheep
in the United States has been in the States
West of those rivers, or in localities where
there was free range upon the public do
main. There were in the whole United
States in 1868 nearly 80 0e0 900 sheep; at this
time there are only 4s, 900. an increase of
4S9 600 in "a years the whole increase being
in sheep on Western ran nches.
The wool growers of ls67 believed that the
imposition of a high tariff on wool would
secure them control of the home market.
The result proves how greatly they were
mistaken and how Intellectual the law has
been 70 produce the condition which they
desired. As to its effect on prices, wool has
steadily declined from 1867, when it was
worth 81 cents pound in currency, to the
present time
The Eastern Decline of the Industry.
The Mckinley act increased the duty on
wool an average of ! cent pound. The
result has been fall in the price OF from 2 to
cents pound, instead of a rise in prices
After 25 years of experience, the result has
been reduction of one-Eeif in the number
of sheep in the States east Of the Mississippi
and Missouri rivers, and q reduction of one
half in the price of wool.
Nor have the manufacturers of wooden
goods been benefited by the imposition of
Ih.,h duties on wool and wooien goods
With hig b protective tariff on the raw ma
terisl and compensatory and high ad va
lorem duties on finished product and pro-
Gocts limited to the home market, wooden
manufacturers cannot even hope to increase
their productions beyond the annual in
crease of population. If the existing law,
imposing an average tax of 81 per
cent on goods composed wholly or
does not increase the price Of domestic goods
Of like character which DO not pay any tax
whatever, then the manufacturer re-
ceives no benefit from protective tariffs and
should not object to their repeal. If do
mestic goods are increased in price by reason
OF duties imposed upon foreign goods of like
character, the extent or amount OF this in
creaee is the measure of protection which
manufacturers receive.
The Work of the Shoddy Mills
Notwithstanding the high protection ac-
corded manufacturers of wooden goods, the
quality of euch goods has dcteriorated from
year to year since the discovery of machin-
cry for converting wooden rigs into substi-
tutes for wool In 1860 there was an invested
capital OF sl2s, ,5GO using in raw material s227-
925, employing go hands atan annual cost of
S4 IA and with an annual product of $402-
59J. The sbocdy produced in the United
states in 1891 Will amount to 100, 0GO
pounds. The secured wool produced in that
year amounted to only 81, 900 900 pounds
1t thus appears that the high protective
tariff on wool, which was enacted with the |
avowed purpose OF aiding wool growers, has
forced manufacturers to a cheaper ma
terial than wool, and the competition which
now threatens mostly the wool producers of
ments manufacturing shoddy in the United
States, rather than from wool grown in
Australia ard South America.
As the American producer of wool cannot
sell abroad at a profit he must await the
pleasure of the wooden manu- "a cturers, who
are his sole patrons. and take such prices as
may be fixed in the home market which
prices will always be determined by the de-
mand and supply.
The Effect of a Protective Tariff.
A high protective tariff on wool has the
direct effect of limiting the demands for
American woods, for the reason that under
such tariffs neither domestic woods nor
domestic manufactures of wool can be ex-
ported and sold at profit; and that amount
only of domestic wool will be purchased and |
consumed which will be required to mix |
with the foreign wool which must be used to |
produce the required quality ana quantity |
OF goods TO supply the home market. As |
free sugar has increased the consumption of |
sugar in 1891 over 1890 "a per cent, we look |
sumption of wool goods if the bill passes.
Il is not unreasonable to assume that lower |
duties upon these articles, as well as a re- |
duction of more than half upon all wooden |
goods, would cause some increase OF i'm |
portations, for the reduction of duties would |
cheaper the price to consumers and thus |
largely increase consumption. Increased |
consumption would call for increased home |
manufacture as well as the, temporarily at |
least enlarged importations; but il is i'm |
possible to estimate accurately the effect |
upon revenues of changes in tariff duties.
This we can say with full confidence, that |
passage of this bill will be far more than |
balanced by the healthy decrease |
in public expenditure now impera- |
liz fTe Interast smAnso By substituting xe in pSp Sp
Jefferson's well-known phrase, economy |
for tn xation," we shall run no risk of caus- |
ing a defeat in revenues of the Government, |
while lifting grievous load of taxation |
from some Of the plain necessaries OF life.
The Protection Side of the Question.
The minority report says that from both |
wool growers and wool manufacturers there /
comes up to this Congress an almost unani- |
nous sentiment that the law may be per- |
mitted to stand as It is. Within the wear |
that has passed since the present law was
enacted, the fiocks of the United States /
have increased more than 800, 900 sheen, |
and under any assurance of its permanence
this increase will continue rapidly. The |
number of wooden mills in the country |
has also increased; great amount of idle |
machinery has been started up to supply |
the new market created by curtailment of
s22, SOC, 900 in the imports of foreign wooden
goods old mills long idle have been re-
equipped; large numbers of operatives
have been given employment ard new
industries never before successfully under
- Il