The San Francisco call., 1896-07-30
Factories Are Crushed by Cheap
5. Foreign Goods and Pauper
% Labor.
DEATH WITHOUT PROTECTION.
Some of the Ruin Wrought by Cleve
landism as .Exemplifed in the
wilson Bill.


of the various wool industries of this State
and OF the Union make a fine object les
son for the advocates of protective tariff,
for it is an easy matter 10 show that the
same blow that killed the Mckinley law
laid low most Of the industries dependent
on sheep-raising for their prosperity.
1t is currently stated il the local San
Fran cisco market that the sheep-raisers of
this State are hardly making expenses;
that the only way they survive is by sell
ing many sheep for mutton, and that they
would go out of business but for their hope
of revival of some such protective tariff
as that: under which they recently pros
pered.
From all quarters the news comes that
sheep-raisers are not breeding their herds
and that their only salvation is to turn
their sheep into mutton rather than shear
i. them for wool. The effect of such q. condi-
lion is strikingly apparent in the San
Francisco market, where nearly all the
warehouses, commission firms and scour-
ing-milTs feel the depression to the point
of encouragement. A visit to the wool
exchange at Fifth and Townsend streets
and study of the inactivity there reveals
the fact'that there is no market. 1t is for
this reason that ali the great woolhouses
are practic ally closed.
Many of the heavy dealers say they
. would 60 out of the business permanently
but for their Belief that the free-trade pol
icy of the Wilson bill will sooner or later
g. be abandoned, even by the Democrats, as
: a worthless system for this country.
. Under the Mckinley bill, which became
nulliied two years ago, Humboldt wool
brought 20 and % cents pound in the
grease, but under the Wilson bill in effect
to-day the warehouses are full of this
wool, and it does not move at II or even
II cents.
Speaking of the deplorable condition of
the market yesterday, Shoobert & Beale's
manager Said: THE wool clip here this
year is. fully 1900 bales short of normal
That means 5000, 600 or 5000, 900 pounds
. and. it requires no Imagination to see that
such loss must be a serious detriment to
the State" o.
1t has been amply demonstrated during
the two years since the Democrats de-
stroyed the duty on raw wool that Ameri-
can growers cannot survive IN competition
with Australia and other great WOOL
growing countries, where land Is almost
free and where labor is very cheap.
Dealers of all shades of political belief
freely admit that Australia can produce
better wool than has ever been grown in
California, and that the cost of producing
it is about one-ffth that which prevails in
this State. Under such state of affairs
the records of every custom house show a
great importation of foreign wool. This
has every where resulted in ruin to the
home producer
According to a report recently prepared
by Worthington Ford, chief OF the statis-
tical bureau OF 'the, Treasury Department,
the declineoin the sheep industry has been
marked foT ten years, though it revived
= wonderfully under the brief protection OF
the short-lived Mckinley bill.
- Frome Mr. Ford's table it appears that
the mum bef of sheep in America has de-
clined from 48, ,322, ,331 IN 1885 to SO, ,372, ,943
in 1895, and the secured wool produced
i. has declined from l24,945, ,625 pounds in
1885 to. 101, ,718 $50 pounds in 1895, these
figures showing decrease of 1872, ,943 in
the number of animals, and %, 226, 1886
poundssof secured wool.
%. OF this enormous reduction no less than
e 3, ,552,606 head of sheep and 10, 373, ,587
pounds'of secured wool occurred between
1894 and 1895; but, apart from this, the de-
cline was uniform during the whole period
1t is also noteworthy that the decline in the
wool-prpducing districts has been greater
. than these figures show, as in few Of the
Western States. where sheep are now kept
prim arily for their mutton.
Every trade circular issued by wool COM
mission merchants for year has noted
markedsiand steady decline of the market,
and every shrewd agent has advised mis-
correspondents that the outlook must be
steadily worse under free trades
The situation to-day is in striking con.
trast to the condition of the market even
year ago, and it isosteadily growing worse.
A year ago the Boston market handled
1000, 600 pounds of wool for the weeg
ending July 6, but this year less than
], 600, 600 pounds were handled in the same
9market. The total sales from January 1
to June 1 of this year footed 65, ,03O, ,000
pounds against 1904, 800 pounds during
the same period last year, a decline of
81, ,S74, 900 pounds, an amount sufficient to
make general depression throughout the
entireoc0untry.
It must be understood, however, that
the volume of business transacted this
year, in addition to being much smaller
than that OF last year, has been at far
lower prices than those that prevailed in
an active market under the Mckinley bill.
The following quotations from Fenno
Brothers and Childs' Weekly Wool Re-
port, under the dates named, is graphic
picture OF the wool market under Cleve-
landism as expressed by the Wilson bill.
the idol of free traders:
June 6--Boston market continues in its rut
OF dullness and, under the influence of an al-
most stagnant demand, the volume OF trade
has shrunk to small proportions. The enor-
nous imports OF wooden goods which still con-
tinue to hang as a menace over our home
manufacturers are in q large measure account
able for this great curtailment in the consump-
tion of wool, the consuming power OF our
country in its present condition not being
large enough to take care of the supply of
domestic and foreign woods now being pressed
Tor sale by mill agents, jobbers and importers.
Continuing, the circular gives the follow