The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1900-02-09
The POOR MANS SUIT.
American Wage Farmers Wear the Best
and the Cheapest Clothing.

ca a. %
and the Cheapest Clothing.
Under all kinds of tariff laws wealthy
people can obtain good clothing. 1t
is the poor and semi-poor who are most
vitality interested in such laws. Realiz-
ing this fact in a way, the advocates
of low tariffs and no tariffs most siren
uously insisted that the duty on wool
should be removed and that on woolens
cut down in order that the poor mans
clothing could be reduced in price. The
Wilson act made wool duty free and
took off both the pound rate or COM
pensating duty and about one-third of
the ad valorem duty from wooden
cloths. What was the result?
The first result was a great increase
in the importation of foreign cloths of
low grade, every additional yard or
which took the place Of a yard OF
American cloth, and helped to throw
American workers out of employment.
These foreign cloths, chiefly English,
were in general not sound, all o
stuffs, but largely made of cotton and
shoddy mixtures. England's use Of
wool substitute is far in excess of ours
per capita, while her proportionate con-
sumption of wool is only two-thirds
as great as ours. English wooden man
ufacturers are adopts in the fabrication
of cloths Of good appearance from the
trashiest materials, and the American
market was soon flooded with spurious
woolens. The foreign manufacturer
had his chance and he reveled in it.
If the price of clothing was slightly
decreased the standard of quality was
decidedly lowered.
The American wooden manufacturer
soon saw what he was up against.
He was compelled to compete with the
kind of stuff that was making the mar
'ket. He accordingly began to import
wool substitutes. This is clearly prov
en- by the statistics of imports. The
Mckinley act, which preceded the Will
son act, discouraged the importation
of shoddy by a duty of 80 cents a
pound. The Wilson act took the OPP
posite course by putting a merely nom
inal duty of Is per cent C1 such ma
terials. During the seven months Id
ing March 81, 1893, the imports of
shoddy and waste were 193,487 pounds,
and for a like period ending March 81,
1894, only 40,2S8 pounds. In the seven
months ending March 81, 1895 (suc-
ceeding the passage Of the Wilson act),
the imports Of shoddy and waste
amounted to 1886, 7SO pounds, or 225
times the quantity. brought in during
the anne section Of the preceding year.
Will any person now assert that the
degradation of the American woolens
market thus brought about was an adj
vantage to the poor man, even with a
considerable reduction in price? And
the reduction in price could not be con-
siderable, and was not. A suit or
clothes takes on an average o three
yards of cloth, the cost OF which is,
say about half the first cost of the
suit. Reducing the duty on the wooden
cloth does not lessen the cost Of labor,
trimmings or other expenses, and the
amount so decreased was found by
many expert Investigations and calcu-
lations to cut but a small figure in the
retail price of a suit. But the injury.
to quality, the lessened durability was.
a practical and tangible evil, as many
a wearer of medium and low-priced
clothing discovered.
The Dingley act restored the duty on
shoddy as we'll as on wool and wool
ems, and the American mills are turn
ing out honest and durable cloths in
all grades. The poor mans suit" costs
little if any more than Then it was
made OF a spurious worsted from the
shoddy mills of England.