Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1921-11-18
WOOL GROWERS CON- PLAIN BEFORE SENATE
 FINANCE COMMITTEE

FINANCE COMMITTEE
 The number of sheep in America has decreased from 52,5OO,OOO head 1T 1910 to less than 3J,00O,OO0 head 1T 1920, according to statements made before the United States FiIGnce Committee at Tariff Hearings by rep, resentatives of the National Sheer and Wool Bureau of America.
 J. F. Walker of Ohio, member o1 the Executive Committee of the Bureau, and J. B. Wilson of Wyom, ing, it's Vice-President, vigorously at, tackled the ad valorem feature of the Fordney Tariff Bill in their state, ments to the Senate Finance Commit tee, and asked that it be eliminated.
 They presented comprehensive ar, guments in favor of passing the duty on the clean content rather than or the grease, and quoted the costs o1 growing wool here and in foreign countries, calculated to show that 33c per pound on the clean content basis is the minimum duty that will afford the sheep industry in the United States sufficient protection to pre- vent it's sdestruction.
 The representatives of the National Sheep and Wool Bureau claim that there is as great an increase to the wool grower in the cost of producing wool in the United States today over the cost of, producing it in 1912 as there is in the increased cost to the manufacturer of manufacturing fab rics in the United States today over the cost to the fabric manufacturer in 1912.
 But while the price of wool to the wool grower today is as low and in some instances even lower than in 1912, the prices fabric manufacturers today get for their fabrics are double what they got for the same fabrics in 1912.
 The representatives, of the Bureau said:
 'It may be possible that the manu- facturer needs added protection in order. to compete successfully with foreign manufacturers, and if such be the case, we as wool growers. want to see him have it, but he certainly should not be allowed to get it under guise of protection to the grower, which it most certainly is not.
 'It has been the history of wool tariff legislation for the past thirty years that in every instance the man. ufacturer has had hidden protection in his compensatory duties, and as this schedule now stands, with the manufacturers compensatory duty based on 25c clean content duty and his actual duty ranging down as low as 5c per pound, he will still enjoy this hidden protection.
 '1t is a generally accepted fact that wool growers have never received the entire protection which wool tariff schdules intended they should have, and which the consuming public actu- ally believes they receive, and in the drafting of this present measure we are only asking for equal considera- tion with the manufacturer.
 eff the sheep industry of the United States is destroyed, and as this meas ure now stands it can mean nothing else, what would be our position in the event of another war
 "So vital was the necessity for wool in 1918 that the Government took over the entire wool supply in the United States, and quoting General March, United States Army, page IF, Wool and Ray Trade Report of the Federal Trade Commission, "We must commander, and have done so, all of the wool of the United States, and have taken the wool of the Argentine. We are going to put the whole civilian population on shoddy for the next year, *****."
 "The- humiliating spectacle of a na- ton like the United States putting it's civilian population on shoddy, and even using shoddy for it's Army re- quirements the first year of the War, should never be repeated"
 The representatives of the Bureau also stated that we annually produce more shoddy in the United States than we produce Virgin Sheeps Wool, and that in addition to adequate tar if protection, it was necessary to promptly enact the French -Capper "Truth in Fabric" bill, which would put a stop to shoddy's counterfeiting Virgin Wool. The Truth in Fabric" bill is of vital importance to both the consuming public and the wool grow ing industry.