The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-01-13

all wool it would be heavier than the
weight he gives-could be had in Eng
land for from fifty shillings to three
pounds sterling, tailor made, in good
style, or about SIS maximum price.
That is the thing that most concerns
the buyer. Who is there that wants to
buy wool in the grease, have it made
into yarn, then into cloth and so on
till he gets a suit of clothes? That
was all very well in the early times of
home made but now people buy a
suit from a store or have it made by
the tailor, and the cost to them is
made vastly higher because of the high
tariff. That is the point to be con-
sidered.
The contention has been that the
great difference between the cost of a
suit. of clothes here and in England is
with the exception of about $3.50,
simply the difference in the wages in
the two countries. AS an effort to
prove that, the greasy wool and yarn
experiment paraded by our neighbor
is signal failure A suit of all wool
cloth of the best quality can be had
in England, tailor made, fine trim
mings, to measure for S25 1t cannot
be matched in this city for less than
$50 or $65. The workman who makes
up such g. suit here will be paid for
the coat $14; pants So; vest 81; total
S2S.
Those figures We're furnished by
merchant tailor here. Call it S25. De-
duct $25. from SOS, and we have $40
left as the difference without the labor.
The cloth, which can be bought for S.
yard in England at the outside, costs
in America $3.50 at the lowest. In adj
dition to the duty on the wool in the
cloth, there is the ad valorem duty on
the manufactured article, which makes
the big difference in its price per yard
on this side the Atlantic
The weight of such goods is from %
to q ounces pr yard. The duty on it
is four times the wool duty, or A cents
pound, and the ad valorem duty so
per cent. On 31a yards of such goods,
then, the duty would be $11.65, if "a
ounces to the yard and cost price
abroad IS a yard.
But we shall be told that ordinary
people would not want a broadcloth
suit. They would want somthing
cheaper. Well, take 16 ounce goods,
costing one-fourth of that amount, or
S1.25 abroad. Let us see what the bare
duty amounts to. Three and half
yards cost abroad S5621a, the weight,
81 pounds-duty $4S5
But it is a poor sort of "all WOOL
cloth that costs but S125 a yard. The
duty increases with the value as we'll
as with the weight. And the addition
of the duty gives advantage to the
importer to add a percentage on that
duty, and the dealer to add his, and
the merchant tailor to add his, and
so the difference does not all go to
the workman as claimed, and the
difference made by the duty is in any
case vastly more than s1.5O in the
cloth for an all wool suit of clothes.
The wages to good tailors are much
higher here than in any European
country. Nobody denies that Nor does
any one who advocates tariff reform
argue in favor of a reduction of wages.
On slop goods the wages in this coun-
try could not be reduced, for they are
now down to starving point. BY re-
ducing the duty on woollens, foreign
cloth would be made cheaper in pro-
portion to the tariff reduction This
would make necessary competition on
the part of American manufacturers
of woollens. But with free raw ma
terial they would be able thus to com
pete. 1t is not proposed to put wool
lens on the free list, but only the raw
material
America does not yet make such
cloth as is manufactured in the west
of England. Free wool gives to Great
Britain the advantage of all the wool
markets of the world Every variety
is at her command. She ships much
of her own wool abroad, while using
in manufactures that which comes to
her ports free of duty from every
wool producing part of the globe. 1t
is proposed to give American manu-
facturers the same opportunities and
facilities
What should be the consequence?
Better classes of manufactures. More
genuine wool goods and at lower
price. Wages need not be reduced to
effect this. Woollen cloths and woollen
suits may be placed on the home mar
ket at reasonable rates. There will be
enough duty on the foreign article to
more than make the difference in
wages in the two hemispheres. Native
woods will be wanted to mix with the
foreign Improvements will be made
in all textile fabrics and the United
States be able to compete with other
nations for the markets of the world.
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WOMAN SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT.
The Woman suffragists are still very |
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