The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-10-18
DUTY ON DIRT.

Under the foregoing caption The
New York Journal Of Commerce takes
a fall out Of the tariff on wool, as fol-
lows
When the secretary Of the Kansas
board of agriculture complains that
his state contains fifteen dogs for
every sheep it is needless to offer any
further evidence that the duties on
wool fail completely to accomplish
their professed end. Massachusetts, is
complaining that its hillsides are bare
of sheep, though they would not af-
ford bad pasturage. But whose fault
is 1t? Not that the general govern
ment-which means the American peo-
ple-which has for very many years
maintained a duty averaging a good
deal more than so per cent on a very
crude product; the part o. high-priced
American labor t. producing which is
exceedingly obscure.
Fifteen or eighteen years ago Mr..
Dodge who had long been statistician
of the department of agriculture and
who was as stiff a protectionist as
could be found cny~ here, prepared a
special report on wool growing, show
ing that ths raising Of wool was stead
lily and not very slowly declining in
every state east of the Mississippi;
that even in Ohio, the home of several
| Of the most aggressive and persistent
advocates Of high duties on wool, the
mutton sheep was fast replacing the
wool sheep; and 1t abs been more re-
Gently reported that the department of
agriculture was experimenting with a
woolless variety OF sheep for introduce
ton into country that is fostering
wool production by duties which
amount to 500 per cent on the coarser
and dirtier varieties Of foreign wool.
For what purports to be the wool
duty Is a duty on dirt and grease. 1t
Is disguised as a duty on wool In order
to make 1t look better. It is a pre-
MUM upon the slovenly handling of
domestic wool. The buyers have re-
peatedly complained of the filthy con-
dition Of domestic wool but so long
as the government can be induced to
maintain high duty on dirt and
grease the sheep owners will sell as
much as they can of their own very
highly protected dirt and grease with
Whenever the buyers have threatened
TO appeal to congress for redress the
sheep owners have responder with
ominous references to the duties on
wooden goods and the buyers and man
ufacturers have grown silent and the
process of making the American people
pay for dirt and grease under guise of
paying for wool has continued. The
president himself has confessed that
Schedule X Is the result OF the sub
servience OF men I'm congress to a COM
btnation of sheep owners-who nre
mostly great ranch owners in the pub
lie land states-and the manufactures
to prey on the American people and
divide the spoil.
AS the result OF such a combination
the wool duties--chiefly on dirt and
grease-and the far more than com
Epensatory duties granted on wooden
products are ineligible enough. But
the determination of congress to sacri-
ice the carded wool interests TO those
OF the combing wool industry is not SC
easily explained. What we take to be
the fact Is that the country would
never submit to duty of 500 or even
zUV per cent on raw wool. The ad
! valorem duty asFed for by the carded
wool manufacturers, therefore, woult
inevitably involve great reduction In
the equivalent Of the present rate OF
IL cents on heavy shrinkage woods
In other words the duty the carde6
wool men are after is a duty on WOO
with dirt and grease put on the free
list. The great ranch owners of tho
/ cheap land states will NOT s,,h,,o44 ),
anything OF the sort if they can heir
It. and in such a senate as the preseni
they probably can help it, Senator
Penrose Of Pennsylvania, who has beer
thanked by the republican convention
OF his state for his great services ii
procuring the enrichment OF the Payne
Aldrich bin. told a carded wool mann.
facturer that If he could not max,
enough money under the schedule k
as It stood he had better go into som,
other business. The opponents OF pro
lection have occasionally said the sam,
thing to tariff beneficiaries, but for do,