Courier Democrat., 1904-06-02
THE TARIFF AND WOOL
Dingley Law the Curse of a
Great Industry.
WORKED A DOUBLE INJUSTICE,

Harmful and Injurious to Both the
PRODUCER and the Consumer-A
Foolish and Outrageous Tax Which
Has Done Incnlculablc Harm.
Or the many foolish, injurious and
even outrageous tariff taxes levied by
the Dingley bill none perhaps does a
greater amount of harm to all and n
smaller amount of good to few than
do those levied OH wool and woolens.
Ihls tax, averaging nearly 100 per
cent on both raw wool and ON woo,eu
goods, Increases the cost of woolen
clothes by near 100 per cent, reduces
the amount of wool consumed by nhout
half, compels the general use of cot
ton, shoddy and other cheap substi-
tutes and atluiterants instead of wool,
compels workhgmen with ordinary in.
comes to wear inferior and improper
clothlng III winter and is responsible
Tor much of the pneumonia and other
diseases that carry Off such a large
percentage of our northern population
every year.
Ihls tax on wool and woolens is. be-
sides, a heavy burden upon the wooden
manufacturing industry, which is now
languishins and is comparatively stag
nant and improbable. Neither has it
apparently benefited the woolgrowing
industry, for fewer pounds of wool are
produced now than either ten or twen-
ty years ago, While the number of
sneep ls'about the same now as then.
The only real prosperity enjoyed by
the woolen industry for more than
thirty years was during the three years
OF free wool under the Wilson bill.
During this period our woolen mills
manufactured more yards of woolcns
than ever before or since, and the per
capita consumption of wool increased
greatly and was then about GO per
cent greater than it has since been.
The duties on wool vary from 4 to
IL cents per pound on raw wool to 33
to 36 cents on secured wool. Duties
on woolen goods vary greatly. Gen
orally speaking they are three or four
times as much per pound as upon an
equal number of pounds of raw wool
and in addition from 80 to So per cent
nd valorem. The duties on raw cloth
ing wool may be considered as II
cents per pound, on woolen clothes at
A cents per pound and 80 per cent
ad valorem, and on clothing fl cents
per pound and 80 per cent. The duty
collected on imported wool last year
was 80 per cent of the value Of the
wool and that collected on woolen
goods was equal to 81 per cent of their
value.
AS these, like all specific OF partly
specific duties, are higher Oh cheap
than Oh expensive goods, it is evident
that they will average about 100 per
cent on ordinary woolen goods. AS
about 10 per cent of the wool consum-
ed in this country comes from abroad
and therefore is nearly doubled in value
by the tariff duties it is evident that
the tariff must increase the value OF
most woolens sold here by nearly 100
per cent.
The total value at retail of all WOOL
en- goods and clothing sold in this
country is probably about $780, 100000
year. 1t is safe to say that $780,
100000 of this amount is due to the
tariff duties on wool and woolens
This is an average of about 50 per
family for our whole population.
The total value of all the sheep in
the country on Jan. /, 1904, was esti-
mated at only $133, 10000, and the
value of the wool clip for the year 1903
at $5S, S,773,373, or only about one-third
the tariff cost of woolens.
But not more than half Of the
price of wool, probably not one-ffth,
can be credited to the duty on raw
wool. Therefore, in order to grant a
protection bonus of from $1O,Oo0,00O to
$3O,OOO,OOO a year to our woolgrow-
ers, we tax all families an average OF
50 per family in order that we may
confer a tariff benefit which cannot
possibly exceed 50 and which probably
does not exceed Is cents per family.
But as one-half Of this protection bo-
nus most certainly goes to less than
100000 of the big ranch men OF Mon
tana. Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Cali
fornia, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Ari-
zona and New Mexico, who produce
more than one-half the wool grown in
this country, the average for all the
other families cannot exceed 81 and
probably does not exceed 40 cents per
family.
A.-n-1 Nl.vs Renu uhlicana.