The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-23
THE cay OF THE INFANTS.

If one may judge from the eontin-
uing cry of first one industry and then
another for protection from foreign
competition by means of a tariff. there
is no line of endeavor in which the
American producer can hold his own.
Where there already is levied tariff
duty more is demanded; where there
Is none one Is asked for.
Among the most persistent urgers
of governmental favor are the wool
men. The hundred million people
who have contributed in providing the
sinews of war, who are now paying. in
one form or another, the cost of the
war, and who for years will be obliged
to bear a none too easy burden of tax
alton, says the Christian Science Mon
itor are in no mood to foster infant"
Industries which have long since
passed the stage of infancy. and have
ceased to need special care and en-
couragement.
Commenting further on the same
subject the Monitor says:
The demand is for a tariff, presum-
ably prohibitive; which shall render
the importation of wool into the
United States impossible, or at least
Improbable. This action must be
taken, it is asserted, in order that the
wool-producing industry may not be
destroyed Indeed, the exigency is de-
clared to be so great that emergency
action in the form of an embargo on
raw wool imports is asked pending the
framing and passage of eomprehen-
sive tariff measure which may, per-
haps, embody many OF the discarded
protective provisions. Suddenly it has
fIaof a-fr ffkae. OF
wool produced in other countries are
being offered in the markets of the
United States, and that if these i'm
portations are continued, the Ameri-
can wool-producing industry will suf-
fer greatly. No claim is made, so far
as known, that the wool-producing in
dustry in the United States is still an
Infant" industry. Neither is it stated
affirmatively, as the fact is, that dur
ing the early years of the war, and
until recently, vast fortunes were made
by the sheep men of the western states.
No claim has been advanced in behalf
of those men that they have lost, by
continuing in the industry, any of the
profits formerly made. 1t is claimed
only that provision should be made for
them, by shutting out competing prod
ucts. that they may continue to earn
what to them seems a satisfactory
profit.
In considering the claims of the
producers OF wool for special legisla-
ton in behalf of their industry, it
should be remembered that but a small
proportion of the wool which finds its
way to the markets of the United
States is produced on farms. The
woolsproducing industry in this coun-
try as elsewhere, is in those sections
where farming. so-cailed. cannot be
profitably engaged in. The great
flocks of the United States are found
in what is called the desert country of
the west, in the states of Utah. Idaho,
Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and
Arizona. There vast flocks, subsist-
ing on the free range, are tended,
1thruout most of the year, by two or
three men. To see the Industry as it
is conducted there one would hardly
one deserving or needing special pro-
consuming and non-competing peo-
pie. 1t may be claimed that, some
where in the world, wool can be pro-
duced more cheaply than in the west
ern sections of the United States, but
It might be difficult to prove that the
difference in the cost of production is
sufficient to warrant the levying of
| special imposts as regulatory or
compromising measure. The people of
| the United States, the great consum-
| ing mass which has for some years
been obliged to pay unusually high
prices for wooden clothing, have rights
which should be considered in direct
connection with the asserted rights of
| the sheep men.