El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-01-06
AUCTION SALES TO
SAVE WOOL GROWER
Idaho Man Appeals to the
Growers to Inaugurate
the Method.

Portland, Ore, Jan. 6.-SamueI Bal
1antyne. secretary Of the Idaho Wool
Growers association, speaking before
the National Wool Growers conv.n-
ton today, made strong plea for the
Inauguration in this country of the
auction sale system of disposing OF
the growers output, which he said
would break the wool dealers COM
bine and give the manufacturer an
independent source Of purchasing his
wool on a competitive basis.
Mr.. Ballantyne denied as utterly un-
founded and absurd the charge that
the National wool warehouse is gil
gantic combine.
when we reflect that the Voc; clip
of this country aggregates IN value
over S, 100000" he said, "and that
it is sold without any knowledge of it's
market value TO the growers and must
first pass through the hands of the
speculator before reaching the manu-
facturers. am constrained to say,
gentlemen, that such a system is a
reflection on the intelligence of the
men engaged in the industry.
But coming right to the point. as
to whether or not It would be feasible
to sell wool in this country by auc-
tion sales, the question arises-are we
yet ready for it2 / am of the opinion
that if the growers themselves are
ready for it, the time is ripe.
ct now remains to inquire why such
a system cannot be started in this
country. In the first place, the manu-
facturers can't start it. the wool COM
mission merchant won't start 1t, be-
cause they don't want it. the major
ity of the sheep men would like to
start it., but want a few of their
brother sheep men to start it first. If
a majority of the sheepmen get back
of this wool movement, we would then
be started on the highway of success
In this western country there are
over 2S,000, 600 sheep. producing a wool
output of over 200, 900, 900 pounds an
nua1ly. An assessment Of 1 cent per
pound on this wool would raise 81 000.-
00o-mOney enough, easily, to build all
the warehouses we would ever use and
TO start the auction sales system in
this country very nicely.
but in starting this proposition why
should it be necessary for the sheep
men to own their own warehouses?
Why not go to Boston and Philadel-
phia and rent warehouses?
THE keynote of success in this
is the amount Of wool back
OF it. There must be enough to make
II worm Wnlle TO the manufacturer.
Then rent your warehouses. let each
grower pay the actual expense of
storing. grading and the selling Of
his clip.
The output of wool in the United
States viii average over 800, 100000
pounds annually From the best infor-
nation obtainable (Which is by no
means accurately the wool dealers make
an average annual profit of ? cents
per pound on these woods At this very
low estimate. which I think is con-
servative, their. profits are 100000 |
per year. In addition TO this, it costs
them over a million dollars a year to /
secure this amount of wool through /
heir agents
This great loss to our industry
every year is far-reaching in its eff :
eet. The wool Spectator hangs /
leavy about our neeks. It matters /
lot whether our business is prosper
JUS or IN a state Of depression, they |
sxact the one pound Of flesh, as oft as
'ur sheep are shorn.
The psychological moment has ar
lived for the auction sales OF wool in
his country