Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1893-07-18
WOOL GROWERS WANT PRO
LECTION.

The wool growers OF this cOun-
try have asked for more protection
with every successive drop in the
price Of wool for more than twen-
ty years and now that there is a
higher protective tariff on wool
than there has ever been before
and the price Of wool is lower than
has been known within the pres
ent generation. they are still ask
ing for protection. They are ask
ing for a remedy which has been
prescribed so often and which has
always failed to produce the de-
sired result that it would seem
that they would want a change of
treatment, but the Stock Grower
seems to think that more of the
same medicine will save the pa
tient which now appears to the or
binary observer to be past the
help Of tariff medicine:
Wool growers are a unit on pro-
lection. 1t is the general opinion
and strengthening every day, that
putting wool on the free list will
be ruinous to the industry in this
country. There is no time ODE
lost in organizing the sheep rails
ers and petitioning congress to
let things pertaining to woods and
woolens alone. There need be no
doubts about congressman consid-
ering the wishes Of their ~constitu-
ents. They will listen, and they
will do what their people want
done, if they are convinced that
it is the wish of the people. Let
there be one more big, long, strong
pull taken; let every man who
keeps sheep or believes hat wool
ought to be protected, become per-
sonally interested in circulating a
petition. Congress meets August
z, in extra session.
Wool is now selling at a figure
which would not admit of the i'm
portation Of the article even if
there were no tariff on it. Austria
liam wool cannot be laid down in
the wool markets of this country
as cheap as wool can be bought
here. What, then, would be the
advantage to the American wool
grower of an additional tariff on
wool or the advantage of any tariff
at all? The present tariff is prac-
tically p%rohibitory and yet, under
its operation the price of wool has
gone down to a point where the
wool grower car e no profit in
growing wool.
The wool grower is in the same
category with the wheat raiser and
the cotton grower, but the low
price Of wheat and cotton cannot
be attributed to the operations of
the tariff. 1t is just as absurd to try
to cure the ills of the wool market
with tariff medicine as it would be
to attempt to raise the price of
cotton by putting a tariff on raw
cotton.
The diagnosis of the wool case
has been entirely incorrect. Tariff
medicine is not required. The
price Of wool, like that of wheat,
cotton, and dozens Of other pro-
ducts, has kept pace with the price
of silver and will continue to keep
pace with it. A lower price for
silver means a still lower price for
wool and the sooner the wool
growers of the country get this
idea into their heads and get
rid of the notion that a
high tariff on an article that
is already selling for a less price
than it could be brought here
would help them, the better. The
trouble with the wool market, like
that Of wheat, cotton, corn, iron
and all of the staple products OF
this country, is hat values have
deprecated on account of adverse
silver Legislation which enables a
few men to control the wealth Of
the nation and consequently tc
/, control prices. Give us free coin
r age and wool will advance in price
whether there is any change il
/ the tariff or not.
RICHARD MANSFIELD WHITE
the Worlds Fair COMMISSIONS
, - Al. Tow-st.-- -