The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-10-24

ply the country with all qualities OF
wool, but they have never done 90.
Now we give up the vain pretence of
seIf-sufficiency, and open our ports to
the wool of the world.
In practice the result will not be so
dramatic as the opponents of the
change predict. The wCol-growers
will not be ruined, nor will the sheep
be slaughtered. The finer qualities of
wool will be more largely imported,
especially from Australia. Perhaps
medium grades will also be imported
in larger quantities. Prices of some
qualities of wool mot of alb will go
down-they have already fallen IN
anticipation of the new regime. The
manufacturer will get good share OF
his material cheaper, and goods will
go:down. In some parts of the coun-
try sheep will be grown for mutton
rather than for wool. In the main
the outcome will be a wider range of
choice in his material for the manu-
facturer, a decline in the prices of all
imported wool and of some domestic
wool, some shifts in the location and
character OF our sheep-raising, and a
clear gain to the consumer of woolens.
The prophets of disaster will be disap-
pointed. Here, as in other directions,
the immediate effects of tariff legisla-
ton have been generally exaggerated,
and the country will adapt itself 10
new conditions with hardly shock.
AN INSIGNIFICANT CHARGE.
With free wool we have considered
almost the only consistent and
straightforward step in the new legis-
lation-the only one that could fairly
be said to mark a new epoch in tariff
history. Some other raw materials
are, indeed, similarly treated. Lum-
Der Is admitted free, and this is anOth-
er step in the right direction. But the
duty on lumber had been compare
lively light, and the objections to it so
clear that even the Mckinley Act had
raised none OF the lumber duties, and
had gone SO far as to lower some of
them. Raw flax and hemp are to come
in free; but the imports are small, and
likely to remain small, and the change
Is of no great consequence. Copper,
too, goes on the free list-a long
delayed act of justice. The time of
the worst of the copper duties has gone
by, and the immediate results of this
change will again not be great, but
recurrence of the abuses of the past IS
at least prevented.
On the other hand, as the debates of
the last two months have made known
to all of us, coal and iron remain on
the dutiable list. These are raw ma
terials, III there are such; and the same
principle that called for free wool
called with equal strength for free coal
and iron. The House bill had made
them free; in the Senate moderation
of the duties was all that could be Sc
cured. Both had been subject to duty
at the rate of seventy-five cents a ton;
both are now to pay forty cents
ton.
That coal and iron should be subject
to duty while wool is free, is due to
the combined action of two very diff
ferent cause.-the pressure OF private
interests, on the one hand, and, on the
other, the slowness with which, under
our political system, the Senate re-
spends to changes in popular feeling.
1t is not often that a popular verdict
on specific question IS given as une-
quivocally as that OF the elections Of
1890 and 1892. If Senators were elected
as Representatives are, both Houses,
rs we'll as the Presidents chair, would
have been in easy control of the DEM
ocrats during the present session.
Their policy on the tariff could then
have been squarely carried out. AS it
was, n narrow margin in the upper
House gave a trio of Senators the
power of defeating or twisting the
gave private interests the opportunity
of bringing pressure to bear with sue
cess. 1t is possible to bride or interest
or convince few Legislators, and so
make the interests of great corpora
tions superior to party consistency, not
to mention the welfare of the public.
Where the popular will Is fully ex-
pressed in the legislating body, and
party majorities are not narrow, such
MI -. har 20 nff ofF he
Senate, not the House, afforded the
private interests their opportunity;
and coal and ron ore, as we'll as sugar,
bear the marks of their manipula-
ton.
REGARDING FREE COAL.
SO far as their direct effects are con-
cerned, the coal and iron-Ore duties
are bad, yet not so bad in their guam
titive effects as In their violation of
principle. Free coal would mean
some gain TO New England and some
gain To the Pacific coast; but in
neither region is it likely that a very
large increase in importations would
follow the repeal of the duty. As to
iron ore, the immediate question is
largely one between the smelling
works close to the Atlantic shore and
the iron-ore producers OF the Lake
Superior region. The former want
their ore free of duty; the latter want !
TO sell their product as far east as thy
can. \ remission of the duty would
rebound first to the profit of certain |
Eastern steel-makers, ADD would filter !
through to the pockets of the people /
only by slow steps, hard To- trace in |
detail. But this Is the case with |
every improvement in the arts which /
cheapens the things used in the first /
stages of production. y cheapening I
of coal and iron ore first helps the /
makers OF the crude iron and steel,
and tends in due time to lower the I
price of their product. This tends to /
cheaper machinery; this tends 10 /
cheaper goods; the final benefit TO /
the public comes at the end OF a long
process. Yet no changes in the arts |
during the last century have been so I
far reachin0 in their effects as those