The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1897-05-07

Some o. me severest criticisms not
only of special duties and clauses, but
of the Whole accursed protective sys-
TEN. come from the protected manufac-
turers themselves in their struggle with
opposing interests Mr.. ;. y. ID. North,
secretary Of the Woolen Manufacturers
association, is now and always has been
a stanch protectiOnist- As such he be
lieves til at the 30, 600, 600 consumers OF
this country are legitimate subjects for
pIunder and that the manufacturers
are the proper persons to enjoy the pro
lection plunder-
The free wool experiment which we
have been trying for three years, besides
being an object lesson III the way OF
cheap woolens, has taught the woolen
manufacturers that they can make as
much or more profit with free wool and
moderate protection, which permits peo-
ple of moderate means to wear real
woOlen goods, than with high duties on
both wool and woolens, which restricts
the use of woolens to people III good cir
cumstances The manufacturers there
fore display more than their usual mod
esty and patriotism III the advice which
is in Washington to voice the manufac-
turers' patriotism Here is part of his
advice as taken from the Washington
correspondence of The Dry Goods Econ
omist:
am free TO say the bill is far from satisfac-
tory to the vvOolen manufacturers. The chler
fault Is to be found with the raw wool duties,
which are so high that our manufacturers VIII
find themselves sOrcly embarrassed II Il true
III Laf afftrv
duties which are probably sufficient to offset
the duties on raw wool but the difficulty VIII
be in my opinion, that the very considerable
increase in price which must be made to cover
the additional cost of raw material viii have
the effect of cutting down consumption to an
extent that Will be disastrous to the manufac-
turers. ! do not contend that the rates on
wooden manufactures in the bill are not suffi-
cient to protect against too severe foreign
competition, but the limit OF the consumer 5
purchasing power must control him in buying
wooden manufactures, and 1 fear the rates or
the new bill will very materially restrict con-
sumption
This is practically saying to Dingley,
Aldrich and the other servants OF the
protected manufacturers at Washington:
''Go slow with your high duties and
don't try to protect too many. II you
let everybody into the protection ring,
there will be nobody oItside to prey
upon and we will have to prey upon
each other. Don't make the mistake of
taxing raw materials too high. We
wouldn't mind it if we could sell our
goods and charge the tax over to the
consumer But when the tax is so high
that we have to make our prices almost
out of sight we have found that we can
not sell so many goods, because the peo-
pie cant afford to wear clOthes-that
IS, woolen clothes, which are the only
ones worth considering because they are
the only ones which we manufacture.
Our solicitude for the dear American
consumer is such that we do not wish
to compel him to clothe himself in the
skins of beasts, which are neither fash
ionable nor healthful. Let US not tax
him to death. Let US be reasonable and
encourage him to live and to wear
clothes. By so doing we can keep our
mills running and give employment to
American workingmen at American
wages, which, after all, is the chief OBJ
ject aimed at by US protected manufac-
turers byron W. Holt.