The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-12-13
ABLE PRESENTATION OF
QUESTION OF WOOL TARIFF
Address Delivered by President Of American WOOen Company
Before the algonquin Club at Boston

The following address in defense of
schedule X in the Aldrich Payne tar
if law was delivered by William M.
Wood, president of the American
Woolen company, at complimentary
dinner given Mr.. Wood by the officers
and agents of the American Woolen
company, at the Algonquin club, in
Boston, Friday evening, October 2S,
1910.
This straightforward business like
answer to the attacks which have been
made upon schedule K will appeal to
every thinking man; and the argu.
ments that not only the manufacturer,
the mill operative and the wool grow
er, but even the consumer himself, is a
beneficiary under this law, are con-
vincing to an unprejudiced mind.
~ have hesitated to speak on the
question Of the tariff and schedule *
lest the fact of my being president of
the American Woolen company might
be used by ignorant or dishonest men
against the industry. So | would say
at the outset with all emphasis that
the American Woolen company is sim
ply large corporation and not a
trust. 1t owns all of its plants in fee
simple, with the exception of one in
which it owns all the shares, and it
does not own any fractional share in
any other wool manufacturing crpora-
tion. The American Wooden company
lieves in constant competition and
thrives by competition, and the indus
try of wool manufacturers is not domi-
mated by any combination or mo-
nopoly.
'sIn all the numerous articles in
newspapers and magazines attacking
schedule X i have not been able to dis
cover in a single instance the work of
any man who was honest and disinter-
ested and really knew what he was
writing about. These articles have
been chiefly from mere amateur
theorists or from politicians whose
knowledge of manufacturing is confin-
ed to political capital. In one or two
cases these adverse articles have been
written by former wooden manufactur-
ers who were utter failures in the trade
and vet now persume to advise strong
and successful men how to conduct
their business.
"The American people want fair
play. They will not be misled by muck
raking articles in the newspapers and
magazines if they know that these are
the work of either ignorance or preju-
dice. The history of wool manufacture
in America has been one eff bitter
struggle, and, excepting later years,
of disappointment and disaster. Take
the American Woolen company, for in
stance; with the exception of the three
new mills built under the Dingley tar
iff, every one of our thirty odd con
Germs had been through financial tor
ture of one kind and another; every
single one of them had been readjust-
ed or gone through bankruptcy. In
deed it was the exigeney of the severe
struggle which they had endured that
forced them to combine for self-pres-
ervation. Excessive competition un-
der a shifting tariff policy had near
ly ruined these mills before the Amer1-
can Woolen company was organized
Not one new important woolen mill
had been built in Massachusetts, for a
period of over forty years until the
Mckinley law was introduced. Under
that law the industry got upon its
| feet. only to be struck down again IN
1894, by the ill-starred German Wilson
tariff
"That German Wilson law gave the
wool manufacturers free wool and a
protection of 40 and 30 per cent ad
valorem. The law, as is well known
was disastrous to the industry. II
closed and ruined scores of small, In
dependent mills, mainstays of thriv
ing communities in nearly every state
in the Union. Yet the present AL
drich-Payne law, like the Dingley law
before it, though savagely denounced
as excessive, gives the wool manufac
turer protection of so or 50 per cent
ad valorem above and beyond the duty
intended to compensate him for the
duty on wool If so per cent protec
tion with free wool proved Ineffective
and disastrous, can so and 55 per cent
be rightfully regarded as excessiveF A
margin of or 10 per cent is surely
not a great one between disaster and
moderate success.
eff it be urged that in some cases
the compensatory duty itself is exces
sive, it may be replied that in those
fabrics where competition witt
Europe is most keen and difficult, as
every man in the trade knows, ths
compensatory duty is no more than
adequate. This the large and con
stant volume of imports attests.
$50 long as the greed of Europe
continues for the great American maf
ket, the richest in the world, so Ions
will the American wool manufacturer
be assailed by violent misrepresenta
tion. Nearly every false statemen
about schedule K can be traced direct
ly back to INSCRIPTIONS foreign manu-
facturers or their representatives.
is painful to see how eagerly thes
misstatements are caught up and ex