The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1912-01-12
THE SHEEP INDUSTRY AS A BAL
LAST.

LASI.
Washington, d. c., Jan. 6.-S. w.
Mcclure, secretary of the National
Wool Growers association, said to-
day:
I'm connection with the effort to
reduce 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 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 500, 100000 pounds of
dressed mutton. This has always
been the cheapest meat food available
to our people. Today choice fat
wethers can be bought on any of our
markets at 4 " cents per pound, live
weight But at such time beef and
pork sell at from to Sk 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 peo-
pie use.
1.-THE immense supply of mutton
now annually sent to our markets.
acts as balance wheel in the regu-
lation of the price of all meats.
Should anything 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 a dispo-
sition on the part of the Democrats
to delay revision of the wool sched-
ule, until the steel and sugar sched-
ules have been revised. This will
mean that the wool schedule will be
under consideration during the
spring and early summer at-a time
when the entire American wool clip
will be on the market. The result
will be depression in wool prices of
about 4 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 pric-
es cannot be obtained for wool at a
time when bill reducing the duty is
pending in congress.
'If the Democratic party has any
regard at all for the continued exis-
tence 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 amer
ican clip came into the market bill
cutting the wool duties In two was
introduced by the Democrats which
resulted in the sale of our wool at
free trade prices. A repitition of this
occurrence means that hundreds of
our wool growers will be bankrupt.
The report of the tariff board
should convince the man who wears
woolen clothing that there is no rela-
ton between the cost of the clothing
at retail and the value of the wool
required to make it, A medium
weight suit of all wool cloth requires
10h pounds of wool and the price of
this wool in the west during the past
IS months has been about Is cents
per pound, showing that the wool
grower is receiving $1.57k for all
the wool in a suit of clothes that re-
tails at from 25 to 40 dollars. Tariff
agitation during the past IS months
has caused reduction Of 20 per cent
in the price of wool, but during the
same time there has been an in
crease in the retail price of clothing.
If all the people knew that the man
lfactuK sells sufficient cloth for an
all-wools 1t of clothes at less than
$5, there would be less attention paid
to the tariff on wool and woolens."
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