Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-10-29
TARIFF A MENACE
TO WOOL GROWERS.

Va. daitnusen, OF Colorado, is with
out doubt n OF the greatest wool
raisers and wool buyers In the United
States.
He has recently declared, without re-
servation, that the wool tariff as it now
stands is a menace to all wool growers.
For many years Mr.. Halthusen has
been n OF the largest wool purchasers
! In Colorado. Wyoming. Utah, New Mex
leo and other western States and is
conceded to be at the present time the
largest holder of wool in this country.
Taxed for the Manufactures.
The people Of the United States,a
says Mr.. Halthusen, ARE taxed 100
per cent on the clothes they wear. The
per cent goes to the eastern manufac-
turers ana the favored classes, and the
farmer pays the bill. A trust would
be an impossibility If it were not for
the miscalled protective tariff. Open
competition with the world would
quickly wipe out all che trusts and
Colonel William J.. Bryan is right in
his arguments that all articles and
goods upon which trusts are founded
should be put on the free list. That
is the very thing the trusts are most
bitterly opposed to.
THE wearer of clothing in this
country is a contributor to the wooden
trust. 1nis gigantic corporation has
the country at its mercy, and can turn
out such goods as it likes and the peo-
pie have no redress, for the imported
goods are too costly in price for the
great body of the people. The trust
manipulates cotton and Shoddy and
mikes them with wool in such pro-
portions as to shut out all compete
tion. The people are actually COM
PEELED to buy what the trust offers or
go without clothing. The trust regu-
lates the quality and the price, and
yet tens or thousands of wool raisers
are bamboozled into voting the Re-
publican ticket by specious arguments
which are wholly false. They are
bamboozled by the delusion OF Nc
Kinley prosperity, when in truth the
alleged prosperity was caused by de-
creased supply in other countries n
conditions over which no government
had any influence.
Trust Controls Prices.
THE American Wooden Company"
said he, had absolute power to con-
troll prices. 1t car raise or lower the
price at its will, and nobody can say
nay; it can change the class of goods
manufactured in the mills by using
shoddy or coarse woods and the sheep
raiser stands helpless. When the COM
pany is ready, it goes in the market.
1t has been the policy OF the great cor
poration to stay out OF the market dur
ing the present year. AS q result we
have 1000, 600 or 3,000.0 900 pounds OF
wool in store in Colorado and no de-
mand. Wool has dropped 20 cents on
the secured pound and wool that was
selling for 65 cents per secured pound
is now a drug on the market at 40
cents.
Hid Industry Ruined.
THE wool situation is duplicated in
the hide industry. The trusts have al
most ruined the traffic in hides. The
American Hide and Leather Company
and the sole leather trust control all
business in hides. They have so man
ipulated the market that there has been
a decline OF 80 or 40 per cent. since
January z. Manufacturers are in bad
shape, as they are at the mercy of
these trusts and the outlook for next
year bodies no good for either wool or
hide men.
"One Of the things | expected has
happened, and the outcome cannot fail
to be disastrous to the investors. Com
mission houses of New York and Bos-
ton have taken millions Of pounds OF
wool and placed it in store houses, with
the expectation that after the election
there will be a reaction and prices will
go %skyward. Then they hope 10 unload.
The big dump Will pound the prices
lower.
The Frrmer is Fooled.
To-day | met a farmer who has
seventy-eight sacks of wool who cstl-
mates the wool is worth IL TO 10 cents a
pound. Let him try to sell II. ! would
not give 10 cents a pound for the lot"
A year ago Mr.. Halthusen was a pas
senger on a steamer en- route TO Liver
I pool, and by his force of argument
silenced every gold standard and high
tariff advocate aboard the ship.
THAT was the hottest debate | ever
undertook said Mr.. Halthusen. Il
showed, in the course of the two days
debate, that my opponents were nom
producers. and the country would be
much better off II they were all dropped
into the Atlantic. | find that our o
pie in the mountains and on the farms
are vastly better off in educational
qualifications than the majority OF The
people OF New England, and IL does not
come with good grace for those people
to attempt to offer advice to us as to
how we should vote. The fact is. the
people of Colorado are intelligent
enough to vote without receiving in
structions from the Hood OF orators the
Republican National Committee IL
sopdfuO out hare -