The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-08-02
THE SALT LAKE HERALD. FRIDAY. AUGUST 2, 1895.

/ has owned sheep for many years and
/ has received the selling rates for his
wool. Even on the rental system
sheep owners are now receiving larger
profits on their investments than they
could reap from other ordinary bust
ness pursuits.
! The Tribune's assertion about shrink
age of Utah woods shows the same
dense ignorance of the subject. The
( percentage is less this year than form
/ erly, as every sheep owner knows.
But the original weight is somewhat
/ less because of shorter feeces and
/ less dirt compared with former years.
I This accounts for a less total weight
of clip, and not the alleged killing
off of the flocks,'' which has not oc-
Cured.
One more mark of Tribune ignorance
is its bold assertion that there is only
one class of medium wool. The very
I circular from which it quotes without
understanding it mentions two classes,
and wooldeaIers know that in the east
ern markets there are three classes of
medium wool
Now to the real gist of the dispute.
Instead of the market being flood
ed" with Australian and other
foreign woods, they command higher
figure on the Boston market than do
nestle woods OF a similar grade. If
they sold. as the Tribune asserts, at
four cents a pound higher than the
domestic woods in eastern markets
under McKinleyism they ought to sell
now, according to Tribune logic and
high protection theories, at seven cents
less than the domestic woods. The
truth is that they command from two
to four cents pound more.
The facts remain, whatever plausible
theories the Tribune and others may
invent to account for them, that the
price Of American wool declined under
the Mckinley tariff, as it has under
high tariffs before. Also that instead
of the wool industry and wooden manu-
features being ruined by free wool and
reduced duties on woolens as predicted
they are rapidly reviving and the de-
mand for wool is greater than the
supply. The very figures cited by the
Tribune show this and prove the OPP
posite of its propositions.
The United States have never yet
produced all the wool needed in home
manufactures. Imports are necessary
in quantity as well as in kind. A
variety of woods is essential in the
manufacture of different textile fabrics.
The use of the foreign varieties Gre
ates a demand for the home product
That is the way it works in England;
that is the way it is working in
America.
Should the price of domestic wool
keep down to its present figures,
the sheep men by proper care and
business habits will net good profits
But if it can be shown that they have
lost little in lower prices, it can also
be shown that the American people
have gained a good deal in cheaper
clothing and other wooden articles.
The consumer should be considered
as well as the producer. The wool
raisers are comparatively few; the
consumers are numbered by many mil
lions. Free wool and a reduction of
duty on woolens are for the benefit of
the masses, the greatest good to the
greatest number; that is Democracy.
High duties on wool and woolens are
imposed for the enrichment of few
and the impoverishment of the many,
and that is Republicanism.