The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-12-17
TARIFF DOES NOT
REGULATE PRICES

| The following article, which origi-
nally appeared in the New York Sun,
is herewith reproduced at the request
of several Of the leading woolgrowers
of the state:
Years of controversy, largely politi
cal, have left in the public mind a
notion that prices rise and fall in re-
sponse to change in tariff schedules.
1t is commonly believed that ten
cent reduction in the duty ON wheat
would result in ten cent decrease in
the price of that commodity, and that
its transfer to the free nst would re-
duce its price 25 cents a bushel 1t is
believed that free flour, free butter,
eggs, meat, bacon and other COM
modities, now much more costly than
they were few years ago, would
mean a return to the prices of earlier
days, or at least reduction of prices
to the lower level supposed to prevail
in all other lands The belief is dis
tinctly erroneous, but it prevails and
is likely to prevail until knowledge
takes the place of ignorance and of
mere political assertion for political
effect.
just now the wool and wooden
schedule is pushed to the front on the
theory that reduction or removal of
the tariff would enable us all to buy
more clothes and better clothes, more
blankets and better blankets, for a
fraction of the price we now have to
pay.
I People accept assertions to this
effect merely because they know so
J little about wool and woolens. A mag
asine writer asserts that the raw wool
produced yearly in the United States
! is snly enough to make about one
} pound of clothing for every person in
the country Therefore the argument
appears to be that if we want wooden
clothing for our bodies, wooden blank
cts for our beds and wooden carpets for
our floors we must go to foreign mar
kets for our supply of wool The total
/ world supply of wool is so limited that
! II the endre clip were distributed
| amoug thosa who want it each would
! Iget probably somewhat less than three
pounds. The demand for woolen goods
and the ability to purchase them in
this and Other countries have greatly
increased in tie last few years. The
world supply of wool is no greater than
it was in 1894. The earliest date for
which tae figures are Immediately at
hand
In round figures this country pro-
. duces neeighth and consumes one
quarter OF the words present supply
of wool. IF the American demand and
draft on tie foreign product, limited in
! quantity, are increased by reason of a
lowering or a removal of the tariff on
wool and woolens, viii not foreign
prices respond to the lsw of supply and
demand and go far above their present
, levels Sucl a result is probably in
, Ievitable. Whether they would after a
, little time Use to the present Ameri
I, can level i perhaps a question, but
ian almost immediate result of free
wool would be repetition of the ex
,perience under tie Wilson German
bill. The number of sheep in the coun-
try would decrease the supply of wool
being proputionately lessened, and the
price would be affected by decreased
wool supply It is asserted that in the
less than fur years life of the Wilson
bill, under which wool was on the free
( list. the number of sheep in the United
States decreased 81 per cent. The Off
cial estimates show as 100000 sheep in
1894 and 6s00,000 in 1907. The low
er the price of vol the less will be
the number Of sheer on Amrican farms
) and ranges and the heavier will be our
! demand on the limited supply of 9th
. err countries.
7 There seems no rood reason to be-
lieve- that even fire. wool in itself,
would appreciablv affect the price of
, our needed and desired articles made
in whole or in par of wool. In this
! assertion there is N purpose whatever
J to urge retention ofthe present sched-
ules The sole purpse of the comment
lis to call attention to certain facts
; and conditions bearig on the question.
For an intelligent consideration of the
matter some knowledge of fudamen
tails is desirable. Ii is well to know
that the reported 3s000,00 pounds
, of wool clipped in tn, United States in
1909 gave only 14,000,000 pounds
when washed and secured to bring it
, Into condition for usein manufactures.
ITt is well to know tht the 266,000,000
pounds of wool impoted that year
shows shrinkage in wahing and scour-
ling to 165,000,000 ponds. On that
basis the total world supply of wool in
condition for manufacturing purposes
would be less than 1,500,000,000
pounds, or perhaps aboutth pounds
each for the users and wesers of wool
en- articles. 1t is well to know that
supply is limited, and it iswell to re.
member that price will, ater all, be
determined by the reaction of supply
to demand. The immediate and the
permanent results of downwrd revis
3 in of the wooden schedule is another
matter but it is well not to e"ect too
much from reduction or remova of the
tariff on raw wool