The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1912-01-12
TO REDUCE TARIFF ON WOOL.
Democrats to Delay Revision on Wool
Schedules Until Spring.

Washington, D. c., Jan. los. w.
Mcclure, secretary National Wool
Growers Association, said today:
In connection with the effort to re-
duce the tariff on wool, our people
should not lose sight of the tremen
dous influence such legislation would
have on the price of all meats.
Any reduction in the wool duties
will inevitably be followed by a large
reduction in the numbers of sheep,
which will reduce the supply of NUT
ton, resulting in enhancing the price
of all other meats.
A careful investigation shows that
last year our sheep supplied our peo-
pie with about S00,000,000 pounds of
dressed mutton. This has always been
the cheapest meat food available to our
people. Today choice fat weathers
can be bought on any of our markets
at Az cents per pound, live weight,
But at such time beef and pork sell at
from to 81 cents, live weight. The
average price at which our mutton is
sold has always been from cents to
cents beneath the beef or pork prices,
showing that mutton is the cheapest
meat our people use.
The immense supply of mutton now
annually sent to our markets acts as
| a balance wheel in the regulation of
the price of all meats. Should any
thing be done to reduce the number of
our sheep there will be an immediate
increase in the price of beef and pork
| that would not be compensated for in
any imaginary reduction in the cost of
| clothing.
| There now seems to be disposition
on the part of the Democrats to delay
| revision of the wool schedule, until
| the steel and sugar schedules have
| been revised This will mean that the
wool schedule will be under considera-
| ton during the spring and early sum-
mer at a time when the entire Ameri-
can wool clip will be on the market
The result will be a depression in
| wool prices of about cents per pound
or loss to the American wool growers
of about fifteen million dollars. The
! wool growers hope for early action on
| the wool tariff as they know living
| prices cannot be obtained for wool at
| time when a bill reducing the duty
is pending in congress.
II the Democratic party has any re-
gard at all for the continued exist
ence of the sheep industry, it can best
be shown by an early disposal of the
wool tariff question. Last year about
the time that the entire American cliI
| came into the market bill cutting the
wool duties in two was introduced by
| the Democrats, which resulted in thu
| sale of our wool at free trade prices
/ A repetition of this occurrence mean.
| that hundreds of our wool growers
will be bankrupt.
The report of the tariff board should
convince the man who wears woole1
clothing that there is no relation be
tween the cost of the clothing at re
tail and the value of the wool required
to make it. A medium weight suit O
all wool cloth requires 101a pounds o
wool and the price of this wool in thu
west during the past eighteen month!
has been about Is cents per pound
showing that the woolgrower is receiv
ing $1.57R for all the wool in a suit O
clothes that retails at from $500 t.
to $4,000 dollars Tariff agitation dur
ing the past eighteen months has
caused reduction of 20 per cent il
the price of wool, but during the same
time there has been an increase in the
retail price of clothing. If all the PEG
pie knew that the manufacturer sell:
sufficient cloth for an all-wool suit o
clothes at less than $500, there woult
be less attention paid to the tariff OIL
| wool and WOOlens