Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1893-09-14
WHY WOOL is SO CHEAP.
The Fear of Tariff Revision at the Bottom
of It-A Wool Buyers Opinion.

Mr.. James Moreledge, a we'll known
wool buyer of Waynesburg, Stark
county, recently wrote to several of the
most prominent wool merchants and
manufacturers in the east. asking short
answers to the question whether or not
| the Sherman silver law is responsible
for the decline in wool and the shutting
down of all wooden mills. The first re-
ply was from Justice. Bateman & Com
pany of Philadelphia, and was as fol
lows:
"Cleveland's message at first was well
received. but everything he has said has
faded out of the memory of woolen manu-
facturers except that clause which insists
on tariff revision Factories that were
running, that had decided to continue if
the Presidents message offered anything
reassuring, have now decided to close
Fifty per cent of the woolen mills today
are idle, and it is estimated by the lst of
September IS per cent of them will be idle
The trouble is factories, in the most pros
porous times, make only 2 or 3 cents IA yard
on cloth If wool is put on the free list. it
carries with it a reduction of half a dollar
yard upon cloth, and the loss upo:; that
much cloth is too serious to risk;
hence the closing OF our mills. The
merchants who buy cloth are equally nm
willing to lay in a supply on which they
may lose half dollar a yard; hence the
lack of orders for cloth. This Won can
readily understand, and of course, this
makes the market for wool dull. In an
swer to two of your questions, we do not
think the Sherman silver bill has anything
to do with the decline in wool. Manufac
tnrers began to get ready for free wool i'm
mediately after the election. and for 81 |
days nothing was sold, and wool prices |
fell. The Boston fire in the cold winter
made demand for goods and for wool, !
about the middle of January, so the trade |
was good from then until the President |
was inaugurated. The latter was hardly |
warm in his chair when it was proposed to |
him that tariff revision be abandoned, and |
he said, Why, what are we here
for? p This was published through |
out the United States, and the sales OF
wool fell off at once. Secretary Carlisle,
few weeks later, when asked by a repre-
sentative of the Associated Press, stated |
that wool would be on the free list within
six months from the time the extra session |
of Congress assembled, and the price OF
wool began to fall at once because every
body knew that merino wool was selling al
80 cents and upwards, secured in America
and was selling at only about 80 cents
secured in London. AS consequence the
value of secured wool has dropped
from 60 cents to 40 cents since
the 1st of June. Now, we do not
think the Sherman law had anything
more to do with the drop in WOO
than it had in sending gold out of the
f-vO it1h h,-ir oh inf bol |
country. Gold is coming back as fast as it
went out. If the Sherman law sent it out,
the Sherman law brought it back We
think neither of these causes had anything
to do with it. The reason gold went out
was because foreigners were afraid of tariff
revision-Homestead riots, as conse
quence of idle mills-and they began to
send back American securities and gold
went abroad to pay for them When the
panic began and wheat and other things,
including securities, fell in price foreigners
began to buy our wheat and our securities,
and gold came this way.
In answer to your second question as to
what could the present Administration dc
to restore confidence we say that few
weIl-timed words in the Presidents mes
sage would have restored confidence.
Manufacturers were waiting for it. They
expected him to say that tariff revision
was not good policy on top of the present
great business disturbances, but they die
not know Grover Cleveland, and his state
ment that tariff revision was important,
and must be taken up after the silver bill,
was shock to manufacturers who
were looking for some words of confidence
If the President had stated that he would
use the veto power to prevent any interfer
ence with the tariff, the mills that are now
idle would have been in operation by the
1st of September. Manufacturers believe
down in their boots that the Sherman law
had nothing to do with causius the panic
They, however, think that nine men out OF
10 outside of manufacturing circles thinb
differently, and they think that if the
Sherman law had or had not any
thing to do with this panic, and
if the cause is really only fright
and the repeal of the Sherman law will
remove that fright, then repeal the Sher
man law without delay. If the Sherman
law put down the price of wool the repeal
of the law ought to advance the price OF
wool, but you will find, after the Sherman
law is repealed, the fear of tariff revision
as the cause of the fall in the wool prices
will then be proved and wool prices viii
continue to drop until we reach the free
wool level, unless Cleveland will announce
as stated above, his determination to veto
any free wool legislation. You can judge
for yourself, after reading his message
whether he will eat his own words.
Wilcox & Cardingly, prominent WOO
manufacturers of Boston, say ''the tariff
is of far more Importance than silver, and
is the cause of the stopping of mills
They say that they think .'if the Admins |
tration would only define themselves in re-
gard to the tariff, and say they would dc
nothing at present, so that we would have
something to work on, it would help to re
store confidence. 1t is the uncertainty
that kills, and keeps all in suspense"
The Democracy nrnmisad the worl,.