Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-06-15
Defend Wool and WooIens

| vote for duty on wool and save our
nocks from destruction is the timely
ana earnest appeal of the California
Wool Growers Association to the Popu-
list members of the Senate. California
is second in the list of wool growing
States, and the destruction which would
oVertake her flocks in the event of the
passage of the mongrel tariff bill with
It's free wool provision, would overtake
the sheep industry everywhere through
out the Uuion. The appeal of California
IS the appeal of wool growers from the
Pacific to the Atlantic. 1t is the protest
OF a great industry against legislation
winch means the extinction of forty
fiVe millions of American sheep and cor
responding calamity to the multitude in
terested In sheep culture. American
wool production has already attained,
under the shield of protection, an i'm
portance inferior only to Argentina and
Australia. This is one of the great wool
producing countries of the world. The
wool growers are, as a rule, farmers of
moderate means. They are not Sugar
Trust milliODaires, and cannot pay for
votes given in their behalf with profit
able tips on the stock market With all
the more reason should their interests be
protected by Senators who profess to
represent the people, and whose sole ex-
cuse for political existence is the plea
that they are defending the rights of the
people.
The people demand that these two
great Northern ndustries-wool in the
West and woolens in the East-shall not
be sacrificed to Bourbon malice and
British cupidity. Free wool and the
Bourbon tariff on woolens would mean
the enrichment of Australia and England
and the proportionate impoverishment
OF the United States. They would mean
the expenditure in England and Eng
land colonies of many millions of dollars
now circulated in America, frightening
the homes of the American farmer and
wage Garner and quickening trade in
every department and every section.
Ihey would mean the ruin of many
thousands of hardy agriculturists and the
lmpoverishment of multitudes of thrifty
wage earners, each one of whom has as
much right to haYe his interests regard
ed and protected by the Senate of the
United States as the richest millionaire in
the Sugar Trust. The American farmer
whose sheepfold tis proposed to destroy
is citizen with rights and claims equal
to those of any other citizen however
rich and influential. The American
wage Garner has the same claim to con-
sideration on the part of congress as if
he were Havemeyer or Vanderbilt.
1t has remained for the Bourbons of the
United States Senate to mark distinc-
tlon between Sugar Trust millionaires on
the one hand and the agriculturist and
artisan on the other. and to present the
former with from S40,000000 to SSO,OOO.-
600 from the pockets of the people while
robbing the latter of their livelihood.
This great crime must not be consum-
mated; and will not be if there remains
spark of the spirit of '61 in the breasts
of the men elected to represent the
Northern States in the Senate. Ameri-
can wool must be preserved; American
woolen manufacturers must be spared.
and the farmer and wage Garner per-
mitted to enjoy the protection accorded
them under Republican rule. Let every
Northern Senator, whether he calls him
self Republican, Populist or Democrat,
stand firm in the defense of industries so
vital to Northern prosperity, and repel
the Bourbon attack on the cities, the
villages, the homes and farms of the
Northern people. To secure genuine
protection for wool and wooden indus
tries should be the steadfast resolve of
the representatives of the States to
which the destruction of those indus
tries would be paralyzing blown. Y. |
Press.