Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1895-09-13
FREE WOOL'S WORK.
A MANUFACTURER PREDICTS A
SERIOUS STOPPAGE OF
MACHINERY.


An English Correspondents Statis-
tics Confirm the Gloomy Fore
boding-Free Wool Gives No
Protection to Labor In the Mills
Foreign Factories Reap Great
Harvest.
An illustration of the manner in
which American woolen manufactur-
crs are faring with free wool, we have
been advised by a manufacturer at
Franklin, Mass, that chad thought
Grover would have allowed such bill
(the German tariff to become law, I
would have stopped and retired.
There is nothing in the business to.
day for the worsted maker"
This manufacturer was in receipt,
July %, of letter from Bradford,
accompanied by samples of serge and
fancy worsteds. The serge is sold in
grease from the loom by the manu-
facturer at twenty-eight cents per
yard. 1t is woven, buried and sewn
and ready to dye. 1t is sixty-four
inches wide. The American manu-
facturer cannot buy yarn. or stock,
necessary to make similar goods and
place it in his loom at the same price,
twenty eight cents per yard, at which
the Bradford serge is sold, the stock
alone costing here thirty-five cents;
yet the Bradford manufacturer can
buy his yarn, weave it, sell it at
twenty eight cents per yard and fig
ure out n profit. The came is the
case with fancy worsteds, selling at
tifty-one cents by the Bradford
maker.
AS we have free wool and the Eng
lish manufacturers have free wool, the
mills in both countries can start upon
nearly the same footing as far as their
raw material is concerned. What,
then, is the difference? 1t is in the
labor of spinning and manufacturing,
which in weaving is 112 per cent.
higher in tho United States than in
Bradford.
This simply confirms the argument
of protectionists that the bulk of the
cost, in this case fully ninety per
cent, Of manufactured article is the
labor employed in making it. Free
wool affords no protection to Ameri-
can labor in the woolen mills.
Our Franklin correspondent states
that one importing house has sold for
Bradford firm, this season, to the
extent of 10, 900 pieces of fine worsted
cloth at 81 yard, and he anticipates
that Gin less than eighteen months
there will be more machinery stopped
than in 1898, unless the tariff is ad
vanced."
Confirming this opinion of the
manufacturer at Franklin, we append,
without any comment, q letter re-
ceived from correspondent at Brad
ford, England:
"BRApFoRD, July 13, 1896.
''The great manufacturing districts
of Yorkshire, but more especially
Bradford, are full steam ahead. Work
is plentiful, competition is keen,
wages low. That may seem to be q
paradox to some readers of the Econo-
mist, but it is nevertheless 80 and
must continue. On every hand, our
merchant princes and the press claim,
as one of our leading daily papers said
last week, that our manufacturers
have taken your market by storm.
Whether that be SO or not / will leave
your readers to settle. but it does APP
pear to me that when 1 consider the
amount of exports that are leaving
these shores destined to your market,
the English operators must be receiv-
ing fair share of patronage, which
patronage your own operators and
employed have just right to de-
mand. The few returns which have
hurriedly gathered and put together,
showing what we sent across to your
side in June only, is indeed splendid
object lesson to all truehearted Ameri-
cans. 1t should promote thought and