Semi-weekly herald., 1913-04-21


ten years. There has been down
ward tendency in the last three orI
four years because of uncertainty
about the tariff situation. This DOWN
ward tendency will be accelerated un-
der free trade. In fact, the sheep
business will hit rock bottom, and, i'll
wool is admitted free, Colorado is
going to say goodbye to an industry
which in wool alone amounts to a
million and half dollars year. The
yield from the sales of sheep for
market purposes, and for fattening
range sheep at Fort Collins and other
feeding points, will increase this to-
tai manifold, but, considered from the
standpoint of wool alone, free trade
is going to mean heavy blow to
Colorado financially. The sacrifice of
an annual business Of million and a
half dollars is bound to make itself
felt in all the channels of Colorado
trade and industry.
The proper measure Of protection
is the difference between foreign and
American cost of manufacture. 1t
was on this solid platform that Presi-
dent Taft stood when he vetoed the
LaFollette Underwood compromise
wool measure, which fixed duty of
35 per cent on raw wool. The re-
port of the tariff board on the wool
schedule of the Payne-Aldrich act
shows that the wool industry needs
ample protection. The tariff boards
Investigations were the most thorough
ever made, with regard to the wool
industry. Every phase of the question
was given expert investigation. 1t
was shown that the cost of raising
wool is necessarily higher in this
country than abroad because of the
higher wages paid in the sheep in
dustry. The cost of turning wool into
yarn is 80 per cent more in this coun-
try than in foreign lands, and of man
ufacturing wool into cloth 100 per
cent more, these differences also be-
ing due to the higher wage rate in
this country.
The report of the tariff board show
ed that the American consumer does
not pay for his cloth the foreign price
plus the whole amount of the duty,
as many people suppose, and as Dem
ocratic orators assume. Sixteen Eng
lish fabrics examined by the board
would pay an average duty, if i'm
ported into this country, of 1873 per
cent, and yet these same fabrics, made
in this country, sell for only 81 per
cent above the foreign value, the price
being lowered by competition between
American manufacturers. There is
no "wool trust" the wool business be-
ing strictly on competitive basis.
Therefore, free trade is not going to
break any monopoly, but is going to
destroy flourishing competitive bust
ness in which many American manu-
facturers, employing thousands of
workers, are engaged.
But, in the matter of wool, Colo
RADIO is on the firing line, as in the
matter of beet sugar, live stock and
ores. The Colorado sheepmen, with
their 100000 sheep, will no more
receive the general average of dollar
a head for the annual wool clip. The
total wool clip of this country is
about s25,0O0,OOO pounds. The total
value of the nations annual wool clip
is about $75,000,000. Free wool is
going to annihilate this seventy-five
million dollar industry as effectively
as if congress had passed prohibi-
tory law against the raising of sheep
in this country. There will be no
standing out against importations of
wool from countries where cheap la
Dor is employed on the ranges. But,
after the industry in the United
States has been destroyed, as it will
be in very short time, nothing can
prevent constant upward tendency
Of wool prices, due to combinations of
foreign wool raisers. That is how
the Brazilian coffee combine took all
the glamour out of free coffee. That
is how the foreign sugar raisers will
"put on the screws" after the beet
sugar industry in the United States,
which now holds sugar prices at a
reasonable level, has been eliminated
from competition. Free trade never
considers the probability of these for
Ell yn combinations, in whose hands the
American consumer will be helpless,
after the competing industries in this
country have been destroyed.
If Colorado had voted for free wool,
free sugar, free livestock and ores, it
might be argued that the state desired
a trial Of the costly sort of expert
menting the Democratic ways and
means committee would put into eff
feet But the Democratic vote in
this state is not majority vote, and
no sort of juggling with words will
set the members of the Colorado dele
CATION right if they vote for free
wool. Their pluralities over the di-
4