The record-union., 1897-01-08
Wool Manufacturers Well Represented
Before the House Committee.
Secretary North Presents the Views
of the National Association.
Ask Only for Reasonable and Con-
Servative Tariff Act, the Present
General Condition of the Manu-
facturer Being Very Bad-Ameri-
can nilIers Able to Supply All the
Goods Our People Can Consume.


Goods Our People Can Consume.
WASHINGTON, Jan. THE wool
manufacturers We're we'll represented
before the Ways and Means Committee
to-day. Secretary North of the National
Association presented the views of that
body He said they expected only ade-
quate protection, such as experience had
proven was necessary to enable them to
continue and extend the industry. They
desired a chance to reopen their mills,
but they neither asked nor desired ex-
cessive duties, being convinced that the
best interests of both the wool growing
and wool manufacturing Industries
would be protected by the enactment of
reasonable and conservative tariff Act.
AT the present moment there was more
machinery in operation than during the
summer; but the general condition of
the manufacturer was as bad as bad
could be. The manufacturers We're not
so blind as to attribute the whole of their
prolonged paralysis to the tariff revis-
ion of 1894 Other causes had been at
work, and all industries had suffered.
But there must have been a special
cause why the wool manufacturer had
suffered far more than the other, and
why the prospect of a general business
revival brought no promise of any i'm
provement of this particular industry.
The special cause was revealed in the
records of woolen imports, a table of
which he presented.
In the analysis of the table Mr. North
invited attention first to quantities.
The imports of cloths in the year 1899
ran up to 40070,000 pounds-almost
equal to the entire imports for the years
1891, 1892 and 1893, under the Act of
1890. The largest quantity of cloths i'm
ported in any one year previously was
16, ,24S,313 pounds in 1892, and the in
crease in 1893 over the largest previous
year was 147 per cent. The total i'm
ports of manufactures of wool in 1895
were valued-or undervalued-at $780,
319. .3O1, foreign valuation. The duty
paid value of these goods was about
500, 100000 The value of the domestic
product in 1890 as shown by the census
returns, was about $3.50, 900 600 In
other words, the duty paid value of the
imports of 1895 was about one-third of
all woolens made in American mills in
a year of manufacturing activity, such
as 1890 was. They were equal to about
One-half Of the domestic production Of
1895. American mills could supply all
the goods the American people could
consume. The enormous importations
at low valuations, crowded upon a slug
gish market, were what broke down the
domestic manufacturers. The foreign
ers so completely overdid the business
that they had suffered from the reac-
ton. The importations had largely
fallen off since about February last,
being to-day comparatively small
The ad valorem basis of the tariff had
allowed the Importation of the lowest
and meanest descriptions of goods made
in the world-the peculiar products of
the Jewsbury district in England, where
they had reduced to an exact science
the business of making woolens out Of
shoddy, mungo waste and cows hair and
other rubbish" in the spinning and
weaving of which the American manu-
facturers had not learned the rudiments,
to learn them if they must compete with
this class Of goods in the market. The
complaint of the domestic manufactur-
ers, in a word, was that the higher grade
of American goods had been compelled
to compete for their own market at
prices fixed and governed by these
worthless cloths.
Another difficulty, not less serious,
sprung primarily from the same cause
the ad valorem duty. Not only had
market values been demOralized in the
manner indicated, but they had been
further obiterated by the systematic
consignment of goods at prices lower
than the cost of manufacture abroad,
and their sale in this country, duty
paid. at less than the cost of manu-
fa cture here.
He complained of the form in which
those duties were assessed and of the
manner in which they We're collected.
He objected also to the dividing lines
IN the present tariff at fifty cents a
pcund-ingeniously thrust into the law
at what had proved to be a dangerous
point in the present market conditions,
to invite and tempt importers to save
10 per cent. in these duties by an under
valuation, which in many instances
need not exceed two or three cents per
pound The manufacturers, he said, did
rot resist the restoration of the wool
duty. They affirmatively favored a
re easonable duty ON wool, because they
believed in the policy of protection, and
were willing to make a sacrifice in or
der that that policy might be applied to
all products which needed it.
Thomas Sampson, who operates a
small mill in Rhode Island, stated to
the committee that if the conditions of
the past few years continued all the
wooden mills of the country must close.
S. Muhlhauser of Cleveland O.,
large maker of shoddy, said that he
used the cuttings and waste material
of wool and wooden mills. He supplied
all the large manufacturers with shod-
dy which they used for backing. They
had to use this product to compete
with foreign cloth. The better class of
his output contained 121a per cent of
wool. He used foreign rags because
they were better sorted and cleaned,
but in prosperous times he had com
sImed principally the cuttings of tailor
shops and mills. AT present his mill,
which employed some 100 hands, was
o3ocad Ea world NOT object to a tyUo-