Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-06-18
Washln9tun Standard
WOODEN MANUFACTURERS
URGE MODERATION.

Admit That High, DATES AT. Consequent
Woolcns.
Some q the s"v,r = criticisms not
only of special Gutlts and claus, :. Int
Of the whole &rcur>od r;,'rctivr Svs-
TEN. cc,ir from thr 49, ;'': rlanufac-
turcrs th,ms' Ives IL H., II str;..:.c with
opposing Interests ~ :. - u. North.
So, tarv f the Woo. II manufacturers
a>,ociari' =. i TOW 2:iI always has been
Il StaNr- rri, cti,l.l.t. :, >t.th he be-
lcvcs I'll: thr U.ouU. ot0 ccll>umcrs Of
this roui.::y ar lc-iiimar, -ul iccts for
plumb! nd that the manufacturers
are thc l,orer r,r>C:Is to ,Ejoy the pro
lection Y!Under.
TIL" free wCcl experiment. which we
have been trying for three years, besides
being an object lessen III the way Of
cheap wcolens, has taught the wooden
manufacturers that they can make as
much CT more profit with free wool and
moderate protection, which permits peo-
PIE II nCd' rate means to wear real
wool Il goods, than with high duties on
the use Of woo!c:s to people in good cir
cumstan"oS. The manufacturers there
fore display rCrc than their usual mod
esty ana patriotism in the advice which
they ~ giving to congress. Mr.. North
is III W aShlnCtCn TO voice the manufac-
turtTs' patriotism. Here is part of his
advice as taken from the Washington
cnrrocy,nnIo,,cn e III, JNr1- IL.
omist:
am free to say the bill IS far from satisfac-
tory to the WOODEN manufacturers The chief
fault Is To be fo:lnd with the raw wool duties,
which are so high that our manllf acturCrs will
find themselves sor,.ly embarrassed. Ii is true
the committee la, prOviG' ! compensatory
duties Which are probably sufficient to offset
tho duties On raw wool E;.i the difficulty will
be, in my opinion, that tie very considerable
increase in price which must he made TO cover
the additional cost If raw material will have
the effect Of cutting down consumption to an
extent that viii he disastrous IL the manufac-
turcrs Go not contend that the rates On
wColcu manufactures i'll the bill are not suffl-
clent to protect Us against too severe foreign
competition, but the limit of the consumers
purchasing power must control him in buying
wooden manufactures, and fear the rates Of
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. If you
let everybody into the protection ring,
there will be nobody outside 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 can't afford to wear clothes-that
is, wooden 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