The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1897-05-13
WOODEN MANUFACTURERH
URGE MODERATION.

Admit That High Duties and Consequent
High Prices Will Restrict the Use of
WOolens.
Some OF tho scycrest criticisms not
only Of special duties and clauses, but
of the whole accursed protective sys
tenn, come from the protected manufac
turcrs themselves in their struggle with
opposing interests. Mr. S. n. D. North,
secretary Of the Wooden Manufacturers
association, Is now and always has been
stanch protectionist. AS such he be-
lieves that the 70, 900, 600 consumers Of
this country are legitimate subjects for
plumber and that the manufacturers
are the proper persons to enjoy the pro-
lection plumber.
The free wool experiment which we
have been trying for three years, besides
being an object lesson i'll the way Of
cheap woolcns, has taught the wooden
manufacturers that they can make as
much or more profit with free wool and
moderate protection, which permits peO-
pie Of moderate means to wear real
wooden goods, than with high duties on
both wool and wOOlcns, which restricts
the use of woOlens to people i'll good cir
Cumstances. The manufacturers there
fore display more than their usual mod
esty and patriotism in the advice which
they are giving to congress. Mr.. North
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 WOODEN manufacturers. The chief
fault is to be found with the raw wool duties.
which arc so high that our manufacturers will
find themselves sOrely embarrassed. 1t Is true
the committee has provided compensatory
duties which arc probably sufficient to offset
the duties raw wool, but the difficulty will
he, in my opinion, that the very considerable
increase in price which must be made to cover
the additional cost Of raw material Will have
the effect Of cutting down consumption to an
extent that will he disastrous to the mnnufac-
turers- l 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 3
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