St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-22
IMPORTANT FEATURES
Treated Of Specially by the Mil
nOrity Members

NxGInDSrSs
In discussing the wooden schedule the
committee says: This schedule, as pro-
posed in the committee bill. is in some
respects the most reprehensible. 1t
proposes to destroy at blow the great
industry of wool-growlng. which now
ranks as seventh in the value of its
products among the several branches
of agriculture, and which has heretofore
been recognized as an agricultural
product deserving and requiring pro-
lection under every administration and
by every tariff act since that of May,
%, 1924. Nothing short of the total de-
struction Of this important industry can
be counted upon as the conse quence of
placing both wool and mutton on the
free list. 1t is a fact established
by experience that at the prices
for wool now prevailing in the foreign
markets our farmers cannot continue
the business of Wool-growing without
absolute yearly loss. During the past
year, owing to the impending threat of
free wool and radical reductions in the
duties of WOODEN goods, the prices Of
domestic woods of all descriptions have
fallen from 80 to so per cent below the
prices that prevailed year ago. Even
at these figures there has been little
market for wool, and many farmers
have still on their hands this seasons
clips, which at this time last year were
being rapidly converted into goods by
mills which
NOW STAND IDLE.
The value of the sheep has fallen
equally with the value of their clip.
The depreciation In the value of this
species of agricultural property from
the two sources may be conservatively
stated at $50. 600, 900. The bill deals with
the wool manufacture in terms scarcely
less radical than those accorded the
wool-growing industry, upon which it
so largely depends.
The metal schedule presents some
features that illustrate In significant
way the Illogical character of the bill.
Among these may be mentioned the
substitution in almost all cases of ad
free a number of articles called raw
MATERIAL" the disregard of the relations
that exist between more and less fin
lshed articles, and the totally INADEQUATE
duties named upon certain leading ar
ticles. Some ideas seem to have pre-
vailed in the minds of the majority to
the effect that duties should be adjusted
in proportion to the advance of the
article IN manufacture. The idea does
not seem, however, to have been very
successfully worked out. For example,
iron ore is made free, and reckoning go
per cent of metallic iron to ton of ore,
ho 70 afn Of Mir &c rriV
advantage as to duties of Sl.35 on a ton
of his product. But. on the other hand,
the amount of protection thereon is re-
duced about $3.50. The ingots, which
are the raw material of steel blooms,
are made to bear duty of % per cent
ad valorem; the blooms, which are the
raw material Of steel rails.
BEAR THE SAME DUTY,
and the steel rails, the last finished
product, bear the same also. Such in
congruities run all through the sched-
ule, and are apparent to any one famil-
lar with the processes and products of
iron and steel manufacture. That which
lies at the base of our iron and steel
industry is iron ore. The existing duty
thereon is rs cents per ton. The reve-
nues from its deportation aggregated
in the last fiscal year over half q million
of dollars, S507. 976.19. 1t is proposed
under tariff bill for revenue only" to
throw away absolutely every cent of
this large revenue by putting iron ore
on the free list. The bill proposes to
put into competition with American
ores foreign ores, some of which are
produced at a labor cost one-tenth, and
none of them at labor cost greater
than one-fourth of ours.
Having sacrificed over half million
dollars per annum of revenue to
the vagary of free trade, the
tariff bill for revenue only" proposes
to affect another large source of revenue
by serious reduction Of the duties on pig
iron. That duty now is S6.72 per ton.
The duty proposed Is 2211a per cent ad
valorem, or about 1.60 to s1.90 per top,
LOWER TARIFF
than was ever before proposed on this
article. That suggested by the Mills
bill was Sc per ton; under the tariff of
1916 }he duty was 80 per cent ad valo-
rem.
In harmony with the q ,ctrine of pro-
lection the Fifty-hzst congress deemed