The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-07-12
This paper is Democratic ~ principles
end is independent in its ciescs o" ~ focol
questions.
The Result. of Free Wool.


The poor old Gazette is equally un-
fortunate in its TRADES about free wool
Along with the other Republican papers
It is in a hopeless tangle on this subject
lit would take several columns of this
paper to expose all the hopeless ignor-
ance and stupidity it and they display
upon this branch of the subject. we
viii content ourselves with one or two
phases. In an article yesterday, the
Gazette had this remarkable state
ment:-
The price of wool has gone up because
the wooden manufactories of England
are, through the influence of the reduced
products that come from the United
States.
Now. in this mornings Philadelphia
.Press" (extreme high tariff Republican
e we find a most interesting spec
fal despatch from Washington. summarize
ing the May Bulletin of the Bureau of
Statistics, giving "the condition of
finance. and immigration for
the fiscal year up to the first of June"
From the Press I" admirably summary
of this document. we quote the follow
ing
There was a big increase in the value
wool in the period covered by the Treas
ury statement. The value of free WOO
imported under q, t.. the new tariff law
that came in under duty before the new
law went into effect was si,se9,l97 max.
1 mooi 2 tm aT5ar Cd dde ariag sS sso0e Eleven ~o %ontH Ds
while the value of that imported dur
ing the eleven months ending in May,
1884. was only ST. 9S2.
Perhaps 1t is clear to the Fargo, N.
D., and Red Oak, Iowa, editor of the
State Gazette how the European de-
mand for wool is the only cause for the
increase in price, while we have been
importing about SIS, 100000 worth more
of wool from abroad than we ever did
before. The "Gazette's' position is un-
mistakable. We do not misrepresent it
N the least. Here is another sentence
from its article to copper fas1en the
matter
There is a growing demand for wool,
but that demand comes from Europe,
where the mills are located that employ
men and women and that produce the
goods which are sert to America TO dis
place domestic products.
It looks to US as If there was a very
decidedly growing demand for wool here.
when from year to year our importa-
tons increase from s5,3o6. 1872 to nearly
1923, 900, 600. Besides. we find in a despatch
from Chicago. a statement by Mr.. G. B..
Reed. who has represented the Great
Northern Wool Growers Association in
the west for twenty years, and who has
Just concluded a tour of inspection, in
which he says
Chicago will handle more wool this
year than ever before; Houses here are
advancing from FIVE to seven cents on
consiennaents. and untold millions of
pounds are moving this way.
OF course Mr.. Reed is ex-oficio an
opponent of free wool and he goes on
to complain of prices; but it seems to us
e free wool has had the effect of moving
untold millions of pounds in every direc-
tion, 1t can hardly be a very paralyzing
measure to trade or industry.
There remains one phase OF the "Gaz-
ette's'' argument that we desire to
say a word upon. It is that indicated
in the twaddle quoted above about the
displacement Of domestic products. It
Is more fully set forth in the following
paragraph
A New York City importer Of wooiens.
interviewed the other day said. that the
land and vicinity are working on posi-
tive orders that will keep the looms busy
for the next. twelve months. The
demand which has now sprung up for
Spring goods is unprecedented. and the
stock of raw material op-hand and the
visible supply are entirely Inadequate.
We are glad to know they are prosper
ing. So intimate has improved transit
by sea and LAM made the relations be-
tween nations, that one cannot flourish
Blu Il VIII be observed, first of all, tina
there is nothing in the above statement
to show that the positive orders are
for goods for the American market.
Even If they are, they only serve to in
dictate increased consumption here, for
assuredly the domestic production is
more active than 1t ever was before.
exceeding that OF the most inflated
period of McKinleyism.
In Philadelphia, the strike Of the in
grain carpet weavers brings the state of
facts acutely to notice. 1t disclosss that
In that city 1.eol looms, located in
twenty-three mile, had been working
full time and overtime to keep up with
the positive orders Of which the do
nestle trade was in constant receipt.
This certainly has a strange look In con-
trast with the State Gazette's'' general
statement.
But we have other evidence. We find
that on the sth day of this month seven
hundred employees in the big worsted
mills at Oswego Falls were agreeably
surprised by the posting of a notice an
nouncing an Increase Of wages In all
ths departments. varying from FIVE to
twenty per cent. The increase was not