River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1895-09-19
Fairy Tales Ahont WOOL.

n heinDef Oh DOStOH WOODEN house
is reported in the New York Post as
saying that the removal OF the duty
on wool, together with the demand
for American wool to mix with the
imported woods, ''has improved the
market for the home product so that
our farmers get higher prices than
they did under the Mckinley act"
Similar statements are quite common
in the cuckoo press. The statement
is based upon the fact that wool is
now little higher than it was at
period just before the repeal of the
Mckinley act, but when everybody
understood that, whatever might be
the form of the new tariff law in
other respects, the repeal Of the duty
on imported woods was certain. In
consequence, the wool buyers sent out
circulars giving notice that they
would purchase only on the basis OF
free trade in wool Hence, though
the Mckinley law was actually unre-
pealed, the market was on the basis of
free wool.
The farmers who sell wool will GER
tainly know whether they now get
more for their product than before the
election in 1892 of Democratic con-
gress pledged to put wool on the free
list. The cuckoo papers may fool 9TH
ers by their assertions, but they can
not fool any wool-grower who COM
pares prices in 1892 and prices now.
The local wool marker reports of The
Sentinel in 1892 and 1896 are as fol-
lows:
Washed. coarse ....2702se l60lsc
Medium .......-.......-......2S 0DS0c lS012Oc
Fine............... ......... 226s2Sc l4GI5c
If wool growing is as prosperous as
the administration press pretends, it
is strange that there has been such
reduction in the mum Der of American
sheep during the past two years, since
the Democratic war against the ami
NAL began. According TO the report
of the Agricultural department the
decrease amounts to 5000, 200 in round
numbers, there being 80, $40, 1888 sheep
i'm April last against II ,273. 553 in Jan
uary, 1893. The yield of wool has di-
minished by $1,000, 900 pounds during
the same period. These figures do,not
look as il free wool were favorable to
the American wool-grower, who at the
same time sees the manufacturer who
buys his product favored by high
protective duty.
One of the fairy stories about the
prosperity of the wool-grower under
free trade in wool that has been going
the rounds of the cuckoo press origin
ally appeared in The Philadelphia
Record. 1t was Informed by a Phila-
delphian, who had just visited Mon
tana, that the wool-growers of that
state were happy because they receiv
ed $50, 600, 900 more for their wool clip
this year than they expected to get
from it." Here was text from
which to preach sermons on the adj
vantages OF free trade. But the story
is met by another Philadelphia, Mr..
4. w. Elliott, who says he is in the
wool business and was in Montana
during the wool season this year. He
shows that there are not more than
2,S00, 900 sheep in that state, and that
they do not yield more than seven
pounds of wool per head. The aver
age price for which wool sold this sea-
son in Montana was liz cents. Hence
the total sum received for the entire
wool clip of the state would not quite
reach s., 300,0 900. How then, he asks,
could the wool-growers OF Montana
receive S6,000,000 more than they ex-
pected? The cuckoo press has thus
far made no attempt to solve this
problem Milicdtkee Sentinel.