Bisbee daily review., 1913-04-26
WHY IS TT THE
 CORNER sToNE"7

Why all the pother in the repub. lican press about free wool? This country protects the wool grower by duties equal to more than the entire cost of production in the re- gions from which comes 90 per cent of the American output; yet we pro, duce only 40 per cent fthe wool we use. The woolgrowing industry is one to which these United States are not adopted for the simple reason that we have not enough poor land. American acres are too productive when devoted to other things to waste in growing wool. So far ss the stimu- lation of an industry is concerned. there is no more sbiect failure re- corded in the history of special-inter. est legislation than the wool tariff We are taxing ourselves heavily and nothing in the way of industrial ex pansion is resulting. says the Repub- lie.
 In view of these notorious facts, it seems at first a little surprising to hear the wool duties called the ''cor- ner stone of the edifce of protec- tion-" But the more we scrutinize them the more do we see how perfect iy the title is deserved. The wool duties represent the artificial stimu- Jus of an industry which, on any large scale, is helpless to sustain itself in this country. woolgrowing is profit able in waste and desert lands, where an income of a few cents an acre per year is all that can be obtained. To see what this means it must be re. membered that the poorest lands in Missouri will yield from s1 to g an acre per year as cattle ranges. The wool-growing industry in all except those portions of the United States which are arid is a helpless cripple and can never sustain itself. because more profitable uses of the soil crowd it out.
 The artificial stimulation of an in dustry which can never become eco nomically profitable standing on it's own feet constitutes the corne, stone" of protection.
 Why?
 Because abuse needs a "salsh fund to keep it going It needs a compact body of men whose arms are always in their hands, ready day and night to rally in it's defense New industries which are successful do not specially reed the tariff, and get lukewarm about it, as witness the implement manufacturers and the shoe men. The wool industry fulfilIs every condition Of tariff enthusiasm.
 Nor is this all. The manufacturers of woolens needs the wool tariff as badly as the wool growers need it. The wool tariff is the excuse for the exorbitant wooIen tariff. Without those unreasonable and exorbitant wool duties, where would the woolen Trust get a colorable excuse for its own unreasonable and extorlioBate exactions? The initial iniquity in the wool tariff is indeed the corner stone of the whole nefarious edifce. With oaI t the woolen manufacturers would have been forced to moderate their demands and the tremendous slush funds which have greased the way for high tariff bills for at least hals century would have been difficult of collection. (As long ago as 1857. one Boston wool firm spent ss7,0e0 in an attempt to influence the action oi congress upoh a single measure. Thur lov Weed, as an influential person. l" got 5000 for collecting statistics and using arguments.e)
 The st. Louis GlobeDemocrat and other standpat organs make DO pre- tense of discussing the wool duties.