Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1893-10-19
WHY WOOL IS CHEAP.
The Fear of a Disturbance OF the Tarif
The Cause.

The following letter was written by
Mr.. Theodore Justice, of Justice, Bate
man & Co. to a Democratic wool grower
in Stark county and was sent By the re-
cipient TO the Cleveland Leader. Every
wool grower in Ohio should read it, and
everybody else will find it interesting
and profitable:
Mr.. F. Machaman, waynesburg, Stark County o.
DEAR SIR: We have yours without
date, in which you state that high pro-
lection. put on wool in 1867, when Ohio
had seven millions of sheep, and when
wool was worth 80 cents, had reduced
the number of sheep in 1888 to only
three and a half millions, and had re-
duced the price to 25 cents. You are
wrong as to the causes which reduced
the sheep in Ohio, and reduced the price
elsewhere as well as in Ohio, Under the
tariff law of 1867 the number of sheep
in the United States increased from
about forty millions in 1867 to over fifty
millions in 1885, when President Cleve
lands administration first approached
the subject of free wool. This was dur
ing a period covered by the tariff law of
1867. Cleyeland's free wool ideas caused
the whole number of sheep in the Uuited
States to decline from over fifty millions
in 1885 to fUrty-two millions in 1889.
The tariff law of 1867 was repealed in
1888, but its effect was not felt until
President Cleveland's administration
began to agitate the subject of free
wool. The duties upon wool in 1867 to
the time of Cleveland's election were
nearly Is cents per pound, but when the
tariff law of 1888 was repealed, and the
duty was reduced to 10 cents per pound,
the number of sheep in the United
decrease was inadequate protection.
The increase from forty millions in 1867
to fifty millions in 1884, when the duties
were Is cents per pound, shows that
adequate protection increased the wool
clip, and the increase in the number of
sheep in the United States in 1884, when
there were over fifty millions, down to
forty-two millions in 1889, when the
duty was only 10 cents per pound, shows
that while with adequate protection our
flocks increased, with inadequate pro-
lection they decreased, and this was the
time when the sheep of Ohio disappeared
most rapidly. But, while they disap-
peared from Ohio, they were not de-
stroyed; for if you will recollect that
about the time of President Harrison's
election, with the promise of increased
o nd fnr rchn
for shipment to the Territories. Your
Ohio farmers found better market for
the sheep with the growers, who wanted
them for the Rocky Mountain regions,
than with the butchers, who wanted
them for slaughter. and you will find
that the tariff law of 1890-called the
Mckinley law-checked at once the de-
crease in the number of sheep, and
although the increase in duties by the
Mckinley law was only one cent per
pound, the fact that the American wool
growing industry was no longer men
aced by free wool, stopped the decreasing
tendency that was SO conspicuous pre-
vious to that, and up to the time of
President Cleveland's reelection in 1892
the whole number of sheep in the United
States had increased to 45,000,000.
Now, what was the condition of affairs
six months after President Cleveland
was inaugurated? You find the price
of wool is lower than it has ever been in
the memory of this generation, and for
the first time in history, American wool
is no longer double the value of woods
of the same kind in London, as it had
been ever since we have had a protective
tariff. On the day that President Cleve-
land was inaugurated Ohio wool was
worth, in the secured condition, to the
American manufacturer, considerably
over 60 cents per pound; to-day its
value to him in the same condition is
below so cents per pound, and much of
it is worth not more than 40 cents per
pound, and this fall from 60 cents Oh
the 4th of March to nearly 40 cents on
the 4th of September is because it is
feared that the coming session of Con-
gress will put wool on the free list, and
when that is done, American wool will
never again be worth double the London
price, or free wool price. The London
price of 80 cents for secured Merino
wool, under free trade will be the Amer
lean price, and this is why there is no
sale for Ohio wool, and this is why
prices are tumbling toward the London
level of 80 cents secured or Is cents in
the washed fleece in the Eastern market,
which means II cents on the Ohio farm.
If you doubt that the fear of free wool
is the cause of the present decline, in
duce President Cleveland to declare that
he would promptly veto any law that
removes duties upon wool. In such an
event as this, Ohio washed wool would
Immediately run back to 60 cents secured
or 30 cents in the fleece, because the |
wooden mills that are now idle because
they have no orders for cloth, would soon
have more orders than they could fill; |
the wooden mills would be in operation, |
and there would not then be enough |
wool to go around. The Australian |
wool, that is now being reshipped in
such large quantities to London, would |
have to be brought back because there
would not be enough American wool to |
supply the demand. You are aware that
by placing wool on the free list, that act
alone, without any further legislation,
at once removes fl cents per pound off
of cloth, making a difference in the cost
of imported cloth of IS cents per pound |
on 20-ounce goods. Merchants are
afraid of the shrinkage in values which
must thus take place in cloth if wool is
put on the free list, and they are not
cloth, and manufacturers for
the same reason refuse to make goods,
the value of which may be reduced over
a half dollar a yard by tariff revision
before they can sell them. This is why
the mills are idle, and this is why the
hundreds of thousands of working peo-
pie, out of employment through fear of
tariff revision, are complaining that
their families are suffering from hunger.
These are the good times that were
promised to the workingmen if they
would vote for an administration stand