Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1910-12-20
TARIFF DOES NOT
REGULATE PRICES
PRICES ARE DUE TO LAW OF
SUPPLY AND DEMAND AND
NOT TO PROTECTION

inally appeared in the New York
Sun. is herewith reproduced at the
request of several of the leading
woolgrowers of the state. 1t will
furnish splendid food for thought.
especially to some of the late demo-
cratic candidates of the state
Years of controversy, largely po-
litical, have left in the public mind
notion that prices rise and fall in
response to change in tariff sched-
ules. 1t is commonly believed that
a 10-cent reduction in the duty on
wheat would result in a 10-cent de-
crease in the price of that commod-
ity, and that its transfer to the
free list would reduce its price %
cents a bushel. 1t is believed that
free -four, free butter, eggs, meat,
bacon and other commodities, now
much more costly than they were
a few years ago. would mean a re-
turn to the prices of earlier days,
or at least a reduction in prices to
the lower level supposed to prevail
in all other lands. The belief is
distinctly erroneous, but it prevails
and is likely to prevail until knowl
edge takes the place of ignorance
and of mere political assertion for
political effect
Just now the wool and wooden
schedules 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 fraction of the price we now
have to pay.
People accept assertions to this
effect merely because they know so
little about wool and woolens. A
magazine writer asserts that the
raw wool produced yearly in the
United States is only enough to
make about one pound of clothing
for every person in the country.
Therefore the argument appears to
for our bodies, wooden blankets for
our beds and wooden carpets for
our floors we must go to foreign
markets for our supply of wool
The total world supply of wool is
SO limited that if the entire cir
We're distributed among those who
want it each would get somewhat
less than three pounds The de.
mand for wooden goods and the
ability to purchase them in this and
other countries have greatly in
creased in the last few years. The
world supply of wool is no greater
than it was in 1894, the earliest
date for which the figures are i'm
mediately at hand.
In round figures this country pro
duces one-eighth and consumes one
quarter of the worlds present sup
ply of wool. If the American de
mand and draft on the foreign
product limited in quantity, are in
creased by reason of lowering OF
a removal of the tariff on wool ant
woolens, will not foreign prices re
spond to the law of supply and de
mand and go far above their pres
ent level? Such a result is prob
ably inevitable. Whether the!
would after a time rise to the pres
ent American level is perhaps ;
question, but an almost immediate
result of free wool would be a repe
tition of the experience under tn,
Wilson-Gorman hill. The number
of sheep in the country would de
crease, the supply of wool being
proportionately lessened, and tn,
price would be affected by the de
creased wool supply 1t is asserted
that in the less than four years
life of the Wilson bill, under which
wool was on the free list, the nun
Der of sheep in the United State
decreased g per cent The officia
estimates show 45,000,000 sheep il
1894 and 36,S00,00O in 1907. TIL,
lower the price of wool the les
will be the number of sheep Oh
American farms and ranges and tn
heavier will be our demands on tn
limited supply of other countries.
There seems no good reason t,
believe that even free wool, in itself
would seriously affect the price o
our needed and desired article
made in whole or in part of wool
In this assertion there is no pur
pose whatever to urge retention o
the present schedules The sol
purpose of the comment is to cal
attention to certain facts and con
ditions bearing on the question
For an intelligent consideration o