The Mena weekly star. (Mena, Ark.) 1904-1977, 1911-12-28
TAFT READY FOR
THE CUT ON WOOL
icnJ-Awaited Report OF Tariff
Board on Schedule X of Payne
Act in Congress-PreseDt
Tariff Is Prohibitory.

Washington, Dec. 20.--Wtih the
long awaited tariff board report on
Schedule X, sent to congress today,
President Taft sent message rec
|ommending that the rates on wool
be reduced materially. The mes
sage characterizes the tariff report
as the most complete statement on
a difficult subject ever submitted
to legislative body. He gives en-
phasis to the fact that the report
is an unanimous one. He recon-
mends that the proposed revisions
adhere TO the policy Of protection
based on the difference of the cost
Iof production at home and abroad.
The message opens with the
statement: ""In my message of
August II, 1911, accompanying my
veto of the wool bill, said sched-
ule X should be revised and the
rates reduced. My veto was based
on the ground that since the tariff
board was TO make a report on wool
in December, that public policy de-
manded legislation not to be enact
ed hastily. I now submit the report
of the tariff board on schedule X.
On the basis of these findings |
now recommend that congress pro-
coed to the consideration of the
schedule with a view to revision
and general reduction of the rates"
The message then enters a long
detailed technical statement of the
various grades and species of wool.
Cost More to Manufacture.
One statement says: Findings Of
the board show that in this indus
| try the manufacturing most aside
from the price of materials is much
higher in this country than abroad.
The cost of turning wool into yarn
here is about double that of the
Heading competing country and that
the cost of turning yarn into cloth
lis more than double. Under the
protective policy great industry
| Involving the welfare of hundreds
of thousands of people has been
Established despite these handi-
leaps"
The tariff boards report suggests
a general revision of duties on wool
and many reductions in the rates.
I'm nearly all classes of the schedule
the boards experts report a major
| ity of the rates of duty prohibitory
and condemns the system Of levying
them. The report points the way
to two great changes in the present
system of levying duties upon raw
wool and finished cloth. 1t would
assess duty upon scrubbed wool
not wool and grease combined-and
suggests a graduated scale Of adj
valorem rate on cloth.
On raw wool the boards report
finds the present duties higher than
the difference in the cost of pro-
duction in the United States COM
pared with the cost abroad. The
method is condemned because it
charges for grease as we'll as for
wool, and operates to keep heavy
shrinking wool out of the country.
On yarn from which cloth is made
the present rate is found prohibi-
tory because it keeps out all except
the finer grades. On cloth the pres
ent rate is pronounced prohibitory
principally because of the specific
compensatory duty which fixes GER
tain charges per pound before the
ad valorem rate begins. 1t costs
hundred per cent more to make
cloth from yarn in the United States
than it does in England and France.
From Sheep to Man.
The cost of a suit of clothes from
the back of a sheep to the back of
a man is computed and profits
traced to their source. Suits re-
failing at $23 and wholesalng at
$3.50 are taken as an example. The
farmer receives 1928 for the wool
in such suit, profit GO cents. The
manufacturer of the cloth receives
for product s4.7S, profit % cents.
The wholesaler receives $3.50,
lprofit, S2.t8. The retailer receives
1923, profit $3.50.
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How 1 axv chialdS fha axyver