Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-03-18
PRESS COMMENT.
wool Tariff VS.. silver.


delphia wool house letter explaining
the improbabilities of the Reed Dingley
tariff bill becoming law. Among other
things he says:
"The price of wool has steadily de-
clined, until like most other farm pro-
ducts, it has gone below the profitable
price of production. This l consider a
national misfortune. Our climate is such
that our people must be clothed in wool,
and if the price of wool goes down so
low that our wool growers abandon that
industry and we are dependent on foreign
countries for our wool, we will in q short
time pay higher prices for wooden cloth
ing than We now pay; and in case of
foreign war it wonId be source of ma
tional weakness if we did not have the
material out of which to make clothing
for our citizens and soldiery.
"Now, it can not be said that the low
price of wool is wholly due to failure to
put tariff on it in 1894, although l think
that has reduced the price of wool. The
real cause of the low price of wool and
other farm products is the appreciation
of gold and the increased competition of
foreign wool growers. All values being
measured by gold, the appreciation of
that metal has fixed the price of wool at
gold standard prices. The South Ameri-
can and Asiatic wool growers, in coun-
tries maintaining the silver standard and
staple prices, have been stimulated to in
crease their export because of the adj
vantage deprecated standard when
measured by gold gives him.
u@r - 81 has fy,v
nished us and other countries with woolr
From South America and Asia last year,
1895, VIC received little more than one
third of our total import of wool, that is,
over 100000 pounds, and from Great
Britain 109,583,l 1874 pounds, as against 49,
576,307 pounds in 1894. How much of
this was Asiatic wool it is difficult to say,
but doubtless the difference between 1894
and 1885 was in part made up of Asiatic
wool brought to England and then
shipped to US. China can furnish large
quantities of wool. If the Chinese ex-
porter sends wool to the United States or
to Europe, he gets the same price the
American wool grower does, but he buys
exchange on China, that is, he buys Chin
ese money, to be paid to him in China.
For every dollar he gets at present rates
of exchange, $1.92 in China for his 81
here, and as the money he gets in China
has lost none of it's purchasing power, he
gets nearly twice for his wool what the
American or European wool dealer gets.
If the American dealer gets 8 cents in
gold for his wool, the Chinese dealer gets
1915 cents per pound for his. The wool
growers in some parts of China have Just
learned that they can send US wool at
profit, and as China can raise ans amount
of wool, this source of supplying will In
crease rapidly-and the lower silver
bullion goes, the greater quantity of wool
will we import from the silver-using
"What nonsense to pirate about pro-
lection of 3 or s cents per pound on wool
while We maintain monetary system that
gives to the wool exporter in the silver
using countries bonus Of 80 per cent on
all his EXPORTS!
"What the wool grower needs, and what
he must have to maintain his existence,
ia not tariff of cents, but tariff that
shall equalize the difference in the price
of the labor employed to raise the wool
and the difference iI exchange. 1t can be
seen at once that this can not be had;
therefore, the first thing to do is to bring
about the parity of exchange between the
money of this country and the silyer-using
And that is what we seek to
10 by the use of silver in this country as
standard money and not as subordinate
10 gold.
"If the wool grower encourages the old
1 -. Al
Asatic and South American wool growers
he bonus of nearly 100 per cent on his
exports, he will be wiped out in spite of
,ven higher tariff than the Mckinley
ariff.
"The most intelligent wool growers in
he United States complained that the
Mckinley bill did not do justice to the
vool interests, and that it had been levied
n the interest of the manufacturers and
Tot in the interest of the wool growers;
hat the Mckinley bill did not maintain
prices may be seen by the steady fail of
WOOL under that bill. Justice, Bateman
Co. give the prices of territorial woods
10 follows: Prices in markets of Phila-
lslphia and Boston January /, 1891, 1917
ents; on the farm, Az; January 1, 1892,
Philadelphia and Boston, 1871 cents; on
he farm, 1879 cents; January l, 1898,
Philadelphia and Boston, l6 cents; on the
arm, 1898, IL cents.
81 have gone into this question some
THAT in detail because I judge by your
etter you would like to aid the wool
grower. I can assure you I would do
nothing to injure the wool industry, which
8 large one in this country, and be-
ieve the only hope for that industry ia
through legislation that will give US
oar of exchange with the silver-using
countries who are in competition with US,
ind fair tariff on foreign wool, and what
have said of wool applies to the manu-
acturers of wool also"