The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-28
TARIFF HIS THEME.
(Continued from Page Three.l


CONTINUED from Page Three.)
when these gools are permitted to
come IN free, as they did under the
Wilson bill, they killed the American
Fscoi-growing industry. When the tarlIL
commission Of 1883 reduced the tar1il
on raw wool from lie to 10c pound.
we lost Is per cont Of our hocks IN Two
years. When the Wilson bill put WOOL
on the free list we lost IS per cent OF
our flocks in less than two years.
This, at least. was demonstration
enough for me that a tariff of lie
pound raw wool Is there for the
protection of the American grow
or, and when any man desires 10 re :
duce the wool schedule he must begin
with the reduction of the rate upon
raw wool, or he will give the foreign
manufacturer the advantage i'll the
Manufacture of all woo'len goods
Is the Tariff Too High?
1.-THE next question is, does the tariff
upon woollen yarns and cloths give the
American manufacturer too much pro-
fit? Is there any reason for reducing
his part of the tariff?
al went to Philadelphia myself and
went through the woollen mills there
tc ascertain. I went into the room
where men were sorting the wool, TAX
ifg it out of sacks that came from Aus
tralia and from South America and
throwing aside The tag-locks. and Sc
lecting the best of the fieeces for the
purpose of having uniform quality
thread in the CLOTH. The men who were
doing that work were getting 20 cents
an hour, for nine hours day, and the
foreman of the room got $40 week.
I'm the testimony before our commit
tee upon this schedule are 1856 pages.
showing the cost of production and
manufacturing in other countries and
in our own, and il, this testimony is
the statement of Mr.. E'hrben, who was
a member of the great German COM
mission that was Elk years revising the
German tariff. He owns mill of the
same kind in Germany. and it appeared
from his testimony that in the German
Mil women had the work of sorting
the wool and their wages were cent
an hour. They worked II hours a day,
six days in the week, to earn 72 cents.
Il need not tell YOU that laborers at
such wages have no American meat on
the table at every meal. and eat no
white wheat flour at every meal. 1t is
against wages of this kind that the
American laborer must compete, and
against work of this kind that the
American manufacturer must compete
In the production of his cloth.
II went from that room through the
rooms where the wool was washed and
tnen where 1t was secured, and then
where it was carded, and then where 1t
was spun, and then where it was woven
into cloth, and finally to the room
where the cloth was on the shelf. There
l asked the manufacturer to show me
the cloths that he was putting on the
market this year for this summers
trade. 1t was worsted woollen mill,
and the bolts of cloth were thrown on
the table before me. I selected one of
a good quality which would make n
suit OF clothes of the kind that is
usually sold for $40 or $35, and asked
him at what price he was selling it, He
said he was selling 1t at $1.3i a yard. l
asked him what 1t cost to make it. He
opened the books and showed every
step of the cost from the purchase of
the wool to the cloth upon the shelf
ready for the market and it footed up
$1.2S1z a yard. 1t was double width
cloth, 1-3 yards of 1t would make
mans suit of clothes, and at $1.S4
would be $4.47 for the manufactures
price of the whole cloth that goes into
$50 suit of clothes It costs him $1.2S1s
a yard just for the price of the wool
and for the labor of making the cloth.
That left him 515 cents yard for the
manufacturers share under the pro-
tective tariff of schedule K. 5H cents a
yard for Is yards, little over Is
cents for the manufacturers share of
the price of the cloth that would make
a $50 suit.
II said to him, Tt doesn't look like
too much He said. I will rent you
this mill for five years or ten years for
5 cents a yard on the output Then he
said. You can rent any woollen mill in
all New England, and there are more
than thousand, for cents yard on
the output. and get a contract for five
to ten years. at a time. instantly
IT said to him then, You don't be-
long to the trust He said There is
no worsted woollen mill trust. There
are a thousand mills. or more, wholly
independent: more than 300 of them are
owned by partnerships, and 567 by cor
porations. They are scattered over an
area of country a thousand miles long.
Some of them are operated by water
power; some by steam power; some
have one advantage and some another,
and each one is the competitor of the
others
1--WE did not change an item in
schedule K, except in reducing the rate
upon the class of waste that comes out
in carding the wool, and yet all over
this country the retail dealers them
selves were told that cloth was adj
yanced from 10 per cent to 20 per cent
on account of the increase in the tariff.
There was no increase in the tariff
upon wool or woollen goods. and the
clothing manufacturers who told their
customers this are simply misrepre-
crease In the case of woollen cloth on
the part of the manufacturers, except
the increase which arose from the adj
vance in the prices of raw wool
Lower Tariff on Paper.
There were many other things in
the revision of the tariff which ought
to be a lesson to the country. They
reduced the tariff on print paper from
$500 a ton to 1915. and put pulp on
the free list, and almost before we get
the bill passed, the Province of Que