The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-07-29
COST THE Pc,
S5OO.OOO,OOO.
PEOPLE
WILL
They Will Have to Pay That Much
More for Their Woolen Goods
Next Year.


$40 mems suits to $3.50.
SIS suits to $18.
$40 suits to $25.
Yearly increased cost to wearers
$2O0,OO0,OOO.
Wooden suitings for women, Is per
cent, increase.
Total increased cost Of wooden wear,
$50O,0O0,0O0.
Unless the Congressional Conference
Committee, to which the Tariff bill has
has been referred, shall change the
schedule, the cost to the people of
of wooden wear of kinds in the next
year will be increased $200000,000.
General advances Of from 20 to Is per
cent on all popular grades have already
been announced by the mills. In mems
suits alone buyers must pay $12O,000,000
more than former prices.
This prospect can be averted, if at all,
by inducing the Conference Committee
to rewrite the wool schedule, Clothiers
have already begun work in this direc-
tion by sending yesterday through
committee, in which several cities are
represented, an appeal to members of
the conference and they will tomorrow
address each member of the Senate
Finance and the House Ways and Means
Committee. The Cincinnati clothiers
are urging reductions upon every men,
Der of the Ohio delegation.
The appeal is non-partisan. 1t is hop
ed that dealers in other lines Of wooden
wear will join in it. The Conference
Committee will not change the schedule
backs the demand. There will be
oh nnDo IF ro1iof r. cnob o&c RnJ-
prompt expression.
Prices of wooden wear are regulated
by the National Association Of Wool
Manufactures and the American Wooden
Company, both of which have head
quarters in Boston. They control the
majority of the mills. On the pleading
that increase of population has outpaced
wool production, prices have been in
creased. In England the increase on
the same pleading has been II per cent.
The Boston trust thereupon put up
American prices from 20 to 35 per cent.
The Independents have adopted trust
figures.
Objections to the tariff are that it
discriminates against low grade woods
that the quality Of cheap grades has
steadily deteriorated and that higher
range of prices has been brought about
for nearly every kind Of wooden wear.
Low grade woods are the kind the ma
jority of the people can buy, and any
law tending to place such goods at a
disadvantage in the market forces up
prices to small buyers or drives them
to wear shoddy.
specific duty of II cents pound is
laid against common unwashed wool.
Removal of grease and dirt and the
shrinkage consequent on washing re-
dnce bulk so much that four pounds Of
such wool are required to make one
pound of cloth. The duty thus practi-
cally becomes A cents a pound, which
is prohibitive. This grade of wool is
taxed . cents when washed on the
back OF sheep and % cents when scour-
ed on the back of sheep, but the tax pre-
vents importation in any case.
The cheapest wool that has gone in
to clothing pays duty of II cents a
pound. 1t is not subject to extra duty
if cleaned on the back of sheep, and
thus may enter at II cents when partly
washed. Two pounds make one pound
of cloth, so that the duty practically
paid is "a cents pound.
Clothing interests are urging an ad.
valorem duty, which, while amply pro.
tective, will work automatically upor
discrimination against low grade
wool and thus keep down cost Of the
grades from which cheap but durable
cloths may be made. They propose al
so that the compensatory duty Of a.
cents per pound on wooden cloth be
abolished, as the grower gets none o.
it..
The clothing industry is the third
largest in the country. Its output is
valued at $600,0O0,O00 annually. A
fully 50 per cent of the people veal
American clothing, the clothiers claim
to voice that preponderating sentiment
in favor of the change they propose
Quality has already been reduced ano
weight diminished in the cloths from
which popular priced clothing is made
and still worse conditions are threaten
ed under trust dominance.
AS has been found in other tariff
commodities, rates of duty for CLOTH
rise in inverse ratio to values. Light
woods which arrive containing little
grease pay as little as % per cent
Common grades are taxed several hun
dred per cent. Winter worsteds former
~ weighing "a ounces yard have
decreased to 16 ounces; spring worsted.
WnlCQ WolSQeu 10 ounces are now u
-. With average losses Of one third il
weight prices have been steadily mount
ing, and the cloths that the masses blu.
will not stand normal wear.
1t is complained that the tariff hal
already to a great extent eliminated
competition and enabled wool ant
worsted manufacturers and spinner
to combine and fix their own prices
The advances now announced, ant
which will be maintained il the taril
bill should pass in it's present form, vii
increase the price of $40 mems suits tt
$l2, SIS suits to $18 and 800 suits t,
$25, and the extra $120,0O0,000 thu
added to the cost of mems clothing il
1910 is twice the value of the annua
domestic wool clip, which the tariff il
devised to protect. The clothiers sa.
that in substituting domestic marke
prices for those in foreign countries il
determining the customs basis Of valu
alton congress has shown the trust thu
way to further advances in woollsl
IS goods