The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-08-29

never.
"It is said, / notice, in the papers,
that free wool is of great benefit to the
manufacturer. Let us see about that.
Before this new tariff bill was passed,
the South Side wooden mills bought
wool in large quantity and stored it,
because the price was so cheap. The
price has not fallen since; if anything,
it has raised slightly. This is easily
explained. The decline in prices be-
fore the tariff on raw wool was really
removed was due to the suspension of
industry which in turn, was due to the
lack of confidence among business men
in threatened Democratic legislation.
There being during this suspension
and this uncertainty no market for
wool, the farmer who had his money
tied up in fleeces had to get it out
somehow, and hence sold the wool in
some instances for half what he eX-
pected to get for it. With the tariff
out Of the way, even though it be an
unsatisfactory tariff in many respects,
the mill owners are ready once more to
start, for time at least, and this pros
pect of a demand, vague though it is,
has caused the slight recovery in the
prices of wool which you read about in
the papers. The stimulus is artificial
and temporary. twill last perhaps a
fortnight or two; and then the reaction
will come. Foreign wool growers
eventually will not need to ship their
raw wool to this country. With one
half the Mckinley tariff removed from
knit wooler goods under the German
act, it would be a shrewder move for
them to sell to the German manuiac-
turer, and have him make it up into
underwear, ship it to America, pay the
reduced duty and compete with the
American wool manufacturer in the
latter's own market.
III do not mean, Of course, that all
this will occur in a month or in a
year. 1t may not occur at all the cleo
tion of strong and able Republican
congress this fall, followed by Republi-
can victory all along the line two
years from now, would clearly prevent
it. What mean is that if the Ameri-
can farmer has to raise wool and sell it
for from Is to 70 cents pound, under
the free wool policy of the Democratic
tariff, he will kill his sheep and go to
raising pork, grain or something else
instead. There isn't a living in the
wool business for. him at such low
prices. Then, when home herds have
disappeared, we shall be pretty much
in the foreigners hands; and it will be
new wrinkle in international philan-
thropy if we do not get the worst and
he the best of this. The same blow
that strikes down the American wool
grower will eventually cripple the
American manufacturer of woolen knit
goods, because, unless he can go into
partnership with his foreign rival, the
latter, by controlling the source of his
raw material, will, as the saying goes,
have him on the hip
81 have been in business q good
many years; and the older 1 grow the
more certain do L become that it is a
poor policy to try to pull one interest
up by pulling another one down. AS
well try to pinch your ear and say it
will not hurt your body; or that if you
cut off your left arm it will not impair
the usefulness of your right leg, The
one-armed mans leg, as leg, may be
strong; but the man as a whole is
lacking. Just so in business. If l
understand protection at all, l under
stand it to mean something that will
not be limited to here an iron mill and
there a cotton gin; but something
that, if rightly worked out by honest
and capable men, will do good to ev-
cry interest within its scope. The
fight which Mr.. Cleveland is making
against protection is fight, in effect,
for even worse sectionalism and more
spotted favoritism than are to be found
in his 'perfdy and dishonor' tariff;
and the only really and permanently
hopeful side | can see to this new tar
if, apart from its usefulness in keep
ing business men out of the insane
asylum from further uncertainty and
suspense, is that it will serve as a poor
compromise until the American peo-
pie get ready to have this business
subject settled in q sensible manner by
men who know what they are about" !"
A DISPATCH from Kansas City an