Why Wool Is Low

The Republican press in striving to find some excuse forthe lowprice of wool under the McKinley bill accuses the farmers of dishonesty and slovenliness in putting up their wooL That this excuse does not always work is shown by the letter of A. Wheeler, a Republican farmer, to the State Republican, of Lansing, in reply to their strictures. Mr. Wheeler said: Last week I saw an article in your paper from Mr. Tompkins on the wool question. I claim to be an average farmer, so his article hits me. I have raised sheep and sold wool for fifty years, and I do up my wool the same now as I did when I first commenced; there was no complaining or howling then, as now, although wool was much higher. I admit there are some dishonest wool-growers; so there are dishonest wool-buyers, for I have seen as dishonest wool-buyers as I have seen in any class of business men; but that would not justify me in making such a sweeping charge as Mr. Tompkins made against the average farmer. A few years ago the wool-buyers complained of the bad condition of wool, so the next year I put up my own wool and was very careful to remove everything that would be objectionable. I washed my sheep, not in a mudhole but in Grand river, and at shearing I tied it up, not with a halt ball ot Dinaing twine but with wool twine, with two strings one way and three the other; and when I took it to market and the buyers looked it over and made their best bid I went to one of the best wool-buyers and told him Ihad taken extra pains in putting up my wool and there was nothing objectionable in it. He replied that he could not give me any more on that account. I believe the wool that comes into the market now is in better condition than it was thirty years ago when the country was new. Why can't the wool-buyers put the blame where it belongs? In looking over my books I find I sold to L. D. Hastings, of Hammondsport, N. Y., on June 29, 1853, some 387 pounds of wool at 5014 cents per pound, and in 1855 I sold him 500 pounds at 382 cents per pound. In 1856 I sold him 358 pounds at 41 cents per pound. The prices given by Mr. Wheeler were in the years when the tariff of 1847 was in forcé, a tariff which the protectionists cali "a British f ree trade tariff."