The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-01-08
They Must Have a Reasonable
Wool Tariff or Cose Up
The Mills.
I'm portant Facts in the Wool Industry
G ven to the House Ways
and Means Committee.

National Association, presented the views
of that body. He said the association
counseled moderation in fixing rates and
expected only adequate protection such as
experience had proven vas necessary to
enable them to continue and extend the
industry. They desired chance to reopen
their mills; but they neither asked nor
desired excessive duties, being convinced
that the best interests OF both the wool
growing and wool-manufacturing interests
would be protected by the enactment OF
conservative and reasonable tariff and
that some promise OF permanence would
thus exist.
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 were not so blind as
to attribute the whole of their prolonged
paralysis to the tariff revision OF 1894;
other causes had been at work, and all in
dustries had suffered. But there must
have been special cause why the wool
manufacturer had suffered far more than
any other. and why the prospect of gen.
eral business revival brought no promise
of any Improvement of this particular in
dustry. The special cause was revealed in
the records of wooden imports, table of
which be presented.
In the analysis of the table Mr.. North
invited attention first to quantities. The
I'M ports of cloths in the year 1895 ran up
to 40.07o, 600 pounds, 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 one year
previously was 16, 24S 313 pounds in 1892,
and the increase in 1895 over the largest
previous year was 147 per cent. The total
| imports of manufactures of wool in 1895
were valued-or undervalued-at $50, 319.-
Sol, foreign valuation. The duty paid
value of these goods was about 500, 600. 600.
The value of the domestic product in 1890,
| as shown by the census returns, was about
$3.50, 200, 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
year of manufacturing activity, sucn as
| 1890 was. They were equal to about one
half of the domestic production of 1895.
American millers could supply all the
goods the American people could consume.
! The enormous i'm portarions at low valua-
lions crowded upon sluggish market
were what broke down the domestic man.
| ufacturers. The foreigners so completely
oyerdid the business that they had SUI
fered from the reaction, the importations
/ having largely fallen of since about Feb
ruary last, being to day comparatively
| small.
| The adj valorem basis OF the tariff had
allowed the Importation of the lowest and
/ meanest descriptions of goods made In
| off ha
Battley and Dewsbury districts in Eng
| land, where they had reduced to an ex.
| act science the business of making woolens
| out of shoddy, mungo waste, cows hair
| and other rubbish" in the spinning and
weaving of which the American manufac-
turers had not learned the rudiments,
/ although 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 manufacturers, 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 vaiorem duty. Not only had mar
| ket values been demoralized in the man.
ner indicated, but they had been further
| obliterated by the Systematic conslgn-
ment 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 manufacture here. he complained
of the form in which the duties were
assessed and of the manner in which they
! were collected.
He objected also to the dividing lines in
the levying OF an ad valerem duty and
particularly to the dividing lines in the
present. tariff at so cents pound which
| at what had proved 10 be danger 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 or 8
cents per pound. The manufacturers, he
| said, did not resist the restoration of the
wool duties. They affitmatively favored
believed in the policy OF protection and
were willing to make = sacrifice in order
that that policy might be applied to sill
| products which needed it.
Thomas Sampson, who operates q small
mill in Rhode Island, stated TO the COM
mittee that IL the conditions Of the pas;
few years continue all the WOODEN mills OF
| the country must close.
s. Muihauser of Cleveland, Ohio large
! maker of shoddv, said I, e used the cuttings
and waste material of wool and wooden.
mills. He supplied all the large manufac-
,urers with shoddy, which they used for
backing. They had 10 use this product TO
compete with foreign cloth. The better
| class of his output containedI2L per cent
! of wool.
He used foreign rags because they were
better sorted and cleaned. but in prosper
Gus times he had consumed principally
the cuttings of tailor shops and mills. At
present his mill, which employed some
/ 100 hands, was closed. BE would not OBJ
! iect TO 2-cent rate on rags. Which, accord
ing 10 the present importations would
4 yield a revenue of S450, coo per annum
+. Kinks of New York, in speaking for
the makers of woolea hats, called atten-
tion TO the injustice under the present
| law of classifying woolen hats with blan-
| kets or the lower grades Of woods.
w. H. Brown OF Philadelphia, repre-
seniing number Of WOODEN manufacture
ers of that city, asked that they be gwen
| the same consideration as was given the
| worsted manufacturers.
G. c. Moses of Maine said that what all
manufacturers wanted was tariff OF such
a moderate nature that il would not be
upset in few years. The change from
| the Mckinley TO the Wilson bill had cost
his company $685. 600.
Robert Stuntz of New York, mat and
rug maker, appealed Tor protection for
his comparatively new Industry against
she cheap labor competition of Germany.
The committee adjourned until to-