The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-08

ufacturers were we'll represented be-
fore the ways and means committee
today.
s. N North of Boston, secretary of
the National association, presented the
views of that body. He said the asso-
citation counselled moderation in fixing
rates and expected only adequate
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 de-
sired excessive duties, being convinced
that the best interests of both the
woolgrowers and wool manufacturing
interests would be protected by the
enactment of a conservative and rea-
sonable tariff, and that some promise
of permanence would thus exist.
BAD AS BAD CAN BE.
AT the present moment there was
more machinery in operation than dur
ing the summer; but the general con-
dition of the manufacturers was as bad
as bad could be. The manufacturers
were not so blind as to attribute the
whole of their prolonged paralysis to
the tariff revision of 1894; other causes
had suffered. But there must have
been a special cause why the wool
manufacture had suffered far more
than any other and why the prospect
of a general business revival brought
no promise of any improvement of this
particular industry. The special cause
was revealed in the records of Woollen
imports, a table of which he presented
In the analysis of 80 table Mr..
North invited attention st to uuan-
titles. The imports of Oths the
year 1895 ran up to 1910 coo ponds
almost equal to the entire Imports for
the years 1891. 1892 and 1898, under the
act of 1890. The largest quantity of
cloths imported in any one year pre-
viously was Is. 24S,313 pounds in 1892.
and the increase in 1885 over the largest
previous year was 147 per cent. The
total imports of manufacturs of wool
in 1895 We're valued-or undervaIued-
at sec, ,501 foreign valuation.
DUTY PAID.
The duty paid value of these goods
was about $50, 900, 900 The value of
domestic product in 1890 as shown by
the census returns was about $780,
900, 600. In other words, the duty paid
value Of the imports of 1895 was about
one-third of all wOOllenS made in Amer
ican mills in year of manufacturing
activity such as 1890 was. They were
equal to about one-half of the do
mestic production of 1895 American
millers could supply all the goods the
American people could consume. The
enormous impOrtations at low valua-
tions crowded upon a sluggish market
were what broke down the domestic
manufacturers. The foreigners so
completely overdid the business that
they had suffered from the reaction
a nd the a ions h ad Iar-cra1xr 70 ITer
off since about February last, being to-
day comparatively small.
AID VALOREM BASIS.
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 Battlely and Dewsbury
districts in England, where they had
reduced TO an exact science the bust
ness of making woollens out of shoddy,
mungo waste and cows hair and other
rubbish in the spinning and weaving
of which the American manufacturers
had not learned the rUdimentS, al
though it was clear they would have
to learn them. if they must compete
with this class of goods in the market.
The complaint of domestic manufac-
turers, 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,
springs 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 obliterated 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 manufac
ture 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 levying of an ad
valorem duty and particularly to the
dividing lines in the present tariff at
so cents a Dound-ingeniOuSly thrust
into the law at what had proved TO be
danger point in the present market
condition, to invite and tempt import
erS 20 save 10 per cent in these duties
by an differentiation which in mary
instances need not exceed 2 or 3 cents
per pound. The manufacturers, he
said. did not resist the restoration of
the wool duty. They affirmatively ia
vored a reasonable duty on wool, be
cause they believed in the policy of
protection, and were willing to make
a sacrifice in order that that policy
might be applied to all produces hich
needed T.
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
woollen mills of the country must close.
USING SHODDY.
S. Mulhhauser of Cleveland, O., a
large maker of shoddy, said that ne
used the cuttings and waste material
of wool and woollen 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 1919 per cent of
wool. He used foreign rags because
they were better sorted and cleaned,
but in prosperous times he had con-
sumed principally the cuttings of tailor
shops and mills. At present his mill,
which employed some 700 hands, was
closed. He would not object to 2
cent rate on rags which, according to