Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1894-01-25
solIE GOOD POINTS.
Our Yale Correspondent Again Writes Intel
ligently on the Wool Question.
YALE, Mont, Jan. II, 1894.


acturing industry to foreign countries;
md this process, if carried far enough,
would compel the woolgrower to ex-
port his product and lose the freight,
as the wheat grove does, instead OF
il at home and having the
in his favor"
Whatever the tendency may be
the TACT remains that we have large
manufacturing interests at home not
yet supplied with home grown ma
With a population large in
the aggregate but small compared to
the extent and u OF our public
domain and increasing, not only by
natural growth, but by immigration
as no other country at present, we
have a better home market than other
countries. When home growers can
supply all the home demand andhave
wool to export, as we do wheat, We
shall be content. But if there are
some kinds of wool needed in carpet
manufacture for instance) and not
raised here, it is not sufficient reason
for throwing off entirely the duty on
all woods Unfortunately.
Woolgrowers are not complaining
against such, but against the free ad-
mission OF woods coming into direct
competition with theirs. 1t is not
enough to tell US that '.every bale OF
imported wool will make an opening
for American wool to mix with it,"
All such talk points to a discussion
Enthusiastically in the interest of the
manufacturers rather than the wool
growers. And such arguments, "if
carried far enough" will take us into
some interesting fields OF speculation.
American manufacturers imported,
we are told, during the fiscal year end
ing June 80, 1898, 5000, 900 lbs.
of foreign wool besides consuming the
domestic clip of 100000 900 lbs.
more. Now il the amount OF foreign
'.mixing" wool regulates the amount
manufactured, regardless of other
conditions, we may logically presume
that 400 200, 900 lbs. tthe amount
manufactured under asserted unfavor-
able conditions) would demand that
$50, 900, 900 lbs. OF domestic wool be
manufactured also under the pre-
sumably favorable conditions that
are at once to come to us under free
trade.
And we may well ask what monop-
oily of the markets of the world we
will then have for such an enormous
production? None. o. her countries
with equal or greater capital at COM
mand and cheaper labor would set
down their wares beside us, even right
here at home, dividing trade with us
and getting as much more, as their
labor is cheaper than ours.
Again it is said: THE day we abol-
ish our wool duties the price of Aus
tralian and Argentine wool will rise in
the markets of the world; that will
mean not only that the competition
will be less than our home growers
imagine, but that foreign manufac-
turers will have to pay more for their
materials than at present, while Amer
lean manufacturers will be able to get
what they are obliged to import for
less. This can 10 fail to stimulate
al enormous development ofthe Amer
lean wool manufacturers" Again they
reason in the interests of the manu-
facturer and not the producer OF wool.
1t may perhaps be true that for a
short time foreign markets might have
to pay more and we less for the wool
of the world. But the Democratic
ideas are built up too much on theo-
retical conditions. They are stimu-
ulating manufacture beyond demand.
Certainly when wool is sc speedily to
be manufactured in such enormous
quantities it were folly to raise it in a
country where one requires a herder
at S35 to $40 per month with sup
plies, shed and hay for every 1000 or
$500 head.
Go by all means to tropical chimes
where vast ranges can be bought or
rented for nominal sums; where losses
from billiards. and deep SHOWS are I'M
known; where green grass grows dur
ing every month in the year; where
expenses are reduced to little more
than the cost OF driving sheep to
shearing pens, and where sheep are
valued at little more than one of their
~f1eeces.
Certainly to keep pace with the enor-
nous demand for wool few sheep
should be permitted to die by being
run in unfavorable chimes. As the de |
mand increases it will probably be
found necessary to turf over a few
RATS of sufficient size to range from
10000 to $4,000 sheep and anchor
them in unoccupied portions of the
Pacific.
And if the demand for manufactured
goods does not keep up with the de-
mand for wool to manufacture, the
party will in 1896 un-
introduce a plank in its
party platform favoring the increase of
population in this and other countries
by incubators.
The assertion that free wool evil
the manufacture of wooden
goods to the totalexclusion OF shoddy"
is hardly worth consideration. For
so long as human NATURES susceptible
its present proportion OF depravity
there will always be found a class un-
to save their earnings to buy
uenfeel cl0fhinn and anYions To hida