The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1921-11-16
FOREIGN WOOL HURTS
U.S.. SHEEP HUSBANDRY

WI The number OF sheep IN America
has decreased from 52,500,000 head
in 1910 to less than IS, 100000 head
in 1920, according to statements
made before the United States finance
committee at tariff hearings by repre-
sentatives Of the National Sheep and
Wool Bureau of America. ~. |@@s
n J. F. Walker tof Ohio, member Of
the executive committee of the bu-
reau, and J. 3. Wilson of Wyoming,
its e-president. vigorously at
tackled the ad valorem feature of the
Fordney tariff bill in their statements
to the senate finance committee, and
asked that it be eliminated. " ~ =
p They presented comprehensive ar
guments in favor of basing the duty
on the clean content rather than on
the grease, and quoted the costs of
growing wool here and in foreign
countries, calculated to show that 33
cents per pound on the clean. con-
tent basis is the minimum duty that
will afford the sheep industry in the
United States sufficient protection to
prevent its destruction. i
The representatives of the Naional
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 or producing 1t in 1912 as
there is in the increased cost to the
manufacturer of manufacturing fab
RIGS in the United States today over
the cost to the fabric manufacturer
in 1912. 80 49,.
But while the price Of wool to the
grower today is as low and in some
instances even lower than; in 1912,
the fabric manufacturers today GET
for their fabrics are double what
they got for the same fabrics in
1912. -.@. a- :
The representatives of the bureau
said: = .,- ..-
1T 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 them have it, but he certain
ly should not be allowed to get it
under the guise of protection to the
grover, which it most certainly is not.
II has been the history Of wool
tariff legislation for the past thirty
years that IN every instance the man
utacturer has hidden protection in
ms compensatory duties, and as this
schedule now stands, with the manu-
1acturers' compensation duty based
on 70 per cent clean content duty
and his actual duty ranging down as
law as cents per pound, he will still
enjoy this hidden prtection.
j., 1T is. generally accepted fact
that wool growers have never received
the entire protection which wool tar
III schedules intended they should
nave, and which the consuming pub
nc actually believes they receive. and
IN the drafting of this present meas
ure we are only asking for equal con-
sideration with the manufacturer,
II the sheep industry of the Unit
ca States is destroyed, and as this
measure now, stands it can. mean
nothing else, what would be our 1nosi.
eion IN the event of another war;?
80 vital was the necessity for
wool m 1918 that the government
TOOK over the entire wool supply of
the United States, and quoting Cen
eral Marsh, United States army. mage
~ wool and rag report of the feder-
al trade commission, We must com
mlandeer, and have done so, all c,
the wool of the United States. and
nave taken the wool of the Argentine.
we are going to put the whole civil,
ian population on shoddy for The
next year # :" ~ g.
"The humiliating spectacle of a
nation 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 sleeps 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 stop to shoddy's counterfeiting
virgin wool. The "Truth in Fabric"
bill is of vital Importance to both
the consuming public and the wool
GROWING industry ..t.