The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-10-02
PUBLIC OPINION.
Governor Osborne of WyOm-
inc On the Wool estion.
Eu1ted by Sam. A hi ng.
To the Editor of The PuBLIc OPINIoN.

Il September Nth. asking Tor an expires
S sion Of my reasons for favoriug the
9 wool schedule of the new tariff law, l
I cheerfully submit the following.
Protection does not protect. Wool
j.. has with the exception of two or three
1 years, always been lower under high
l tariff than when admitted free of duty.
I Ii any wool grower doubts the truth of
/ this assertion, l most respectfully ask
1 him to compare the price of wool for
i've consecutive years. during period
of protection, with a like mum Der Of
consecutive years during a period when
, wool has been admitted under a low
tariff or free of duty, and he will find
that the average price has been lower
during the period of protection than
when admitted free of duty or under
low tariff. The enactment Of a high
protective tariff on wool was the work
of few political demagogues who con-
ceived the idea that such a measure
would attract the farmers vote. They
alleged that it would apprecia late the
price of wool, increase the number of
sheep, and prevent the importation of
foreign wool. If it has accomplished
these results it has been successful
has failed to accomplish any or all of
them, it has been failure; and upon
this logical position all defenders of
just tariff legislation should be willing |
to stand or fall.
There were few sheep west of the
Missouri river when the first high pro-
tectiVe eariff was levied on wool and |
none at all on the Rocky Mountain
ranges, hence it cannot be claimed that
this law contemplated the protection of
our interests in the least. The average
price of eastern fleece v u during
fifteen years Immediately y eceding
the passage of the 1865 tariff IA was
oil cents per pound; the average price
Of the came grade of wool during the
fifteen years Immediately succeeding
its passage was 4S cents: or a loss of
three cents per pound during fifteen
years of protection, The number of
sheep ia states east of the Missouri
river in 1857 Was thirty-seyen millions:
the number of sheep in the same state
In 1888 had diminished to eighteen I
millions; OF a loss of more than one
half during twenty-one years of protec.
ton. In Napoleon McKinley's state
for instance, where sheep should have
clustered around this mighty political
demagogue, the number of sheep de-
creased more than two and one-half
millions during twenty-one years of pro-
eectlon. A like loss was sustained in
all of the eastern states within the
borders OF wnicn WOOL growing was to T
receive such an unparalleled impetus
as result of protection, notWithstand-
ing the population and consequent
demand for wool in the same states =
increased twenty per cent. during the {
same time. The proportion of foreign
wool to that grown at lone, consumed I
in the United States in 1867, was eleven I
and nine-tenths per cent. the propor b
ton OF foreign wool to that grown at :
hpme, consumed in the United States :
In 1892, had increased to thirty per cent,
or there Was almost three hundred Der g
cent more iue Australian and other \
foreign wool consumed in the United =
States after quarter of a century of n
protection than there was before. a
Their so-calIed protection, then, has Z
tailed to accomplish all, or single
object promised for it; and has not only
proved dismal failure, as every wool Il
grower in the land knows, if he will =
think and reason for himself, but it -
should be branded as an objectionable j,
piece of political trickery.
Tee statement made by most repubI.
can politicians, that wool can be grown
cheaper in Australia than in the United u
States, is untruthful, as can be readily ~
ascertsined by studying the reports of S.
The last republican consuls of the CO
United States to The various Australian o.
colonies compiled b. a republican a.
;tatistician and recently published by tt
4 United States statistical bureau. n
The average cost of producing wool in a
Australia and laying it down on the r.
Rharves for shipment is six pence. ht
5welYe cents per pound. During the
asst thirty five years Australia has
been visited by seven years of drought.
which has killed millions of sheep and q
las weakened those surviving so that K
heir feeees were almost completely r.
uined. The cost of transporting wool 80
rom the ranges where the sheep are So
IN and sheared, is fully as high or
higher than the cost of TRANSPORTING y
WOOL from Rocky Mountain ranges r
o the American market. 1t is clearly Ss
aown In the reports above referred to. %
nat the Australian wooI-grower is not y
dangerous competitor to the American
WOOL grower, isl
The American people Wear one-ffth clt
+ the wool grown in lh9 world, and
rocuce less than one eighth of it,
ince our manufacturers have been &c
nable to procure the requisite amount ar
fine Australian and other foreign no
,ools, suitable for mixing with the
'ool we raise at home, at price which
Tould enable them to compete with the I
oolen manufacturers of England, S5
rance and Germany, we have been Wa
breed to permit these countries to an
supply the world with fine Pill