The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-07-09
MUST PAY MORE FOR CLOTHES,
New Tariff VIII Cost Men $12O, 200, 900
Annually.

Washington. July 9.-The men and
boys of the United States will pay 100
million dollars more for their clothing
in 1910 than they have paid this year
as result of the new tariff bill.
This is the statement of the National
Association of Clothiers produced in
the senate by Senator LaFollette OF
Wisconsin. The association includes 81
per cent of the leading clothing manu-
facturers of the United States, among
them such firms as Stem Block, Rog-
ers, Peet & Co, and B. KuppenheimeT
& Co. Their business is said to amount
to 500 millions annually.
The new tariff bill will merely re-
enact the Dingley law so far as the
wooden schedule is concerned, but it
contains stringent provisions on valua-
ton that are expected to boost rates
and SO become responsible for higher
prices. The effect of the Dingley tariff
on wool, the statement says, has been
to reduce the qualities and diminish
the weight of the goods used, thereby
making clothing less durable.
This state of affairs has resulted
from the cumbersome provisions of
the Dingley bill by which different
grades of wool receive the most I'M
equal protection, and by which
compensatory duties that are highly
excessive are allowed on wooden
cloths. A certain duty, for instance,
is levied on pound of raw wool.
The manufacturer allowed this duty
lection. The compensatory duty is
based on the assumption that it takes
four pounds of raw wool to make a
pound of cloth, while in fact not more
than two pounds are needed in the
finer grades of cloth. AS a result of
this system of compound rates t
duties run all the way from 100 to
200 per cent. Moreover, wool has
become so expensive that under the
Dingley law, the manufacturers say,
there has been a deteriorating of
fully 33 1-3 per cent in weight.
1t is pointed out further that
combinations of manufacturers have
been built under the shelter of the
tariff. That the advances in the
United States are not due entirely to
the increase in the price of the raw
material is shown by the fact that in
England the advance has been much
less. The clothing men continue:
These advanced prices on worsteds
which have been announced following
the steady deterioration of fabrics in
weight and quality, resulting from the
operations of the Dingley bill. will add
to the retail price approximately $3.50
on SO suit of clothes, 50 on $15 suit
and SIS on a $40 suit or from 20 per cent
to 25 per cent to the cost of the cloth
ing to the wearer thereof The aggre--
gate burden of the increased cost of
mems and boys clothing to the Ameri-
can people under the present advance
alone will be 120 million dollars for the
year 1910, which is twice the value of
the annual domestic wool clip
These increased prices are attributed
to the change in the basis of valuation
by which rates will be raised material
". The clothiers end by asking for a
reduction of the duty on raw wool to 40
per cent and IS per cent on wooden
clothes. No such relief will be granted,
however. for the senate already has
voted down amendments proposed by
Senator LaFollette to effect the desired
result.