The Price Of Wool

Ia the issue of the Argus of July 13, i388, appeared a carefully pre pared article on the price of wool The figuras given were the result o original work on the part of the edi tor and were corapiled from work which had no reference to the tariff Before the passage of the McKinley bill which raised the tariff on woo the Argus predicted that this woulc lower the price of wool. This was the result. The Argus now, with equal confidence, predicts that the placing of wool on the free list will raise the price of wool. The following is the article referred tO: The greatest difficulty met with in discussing the tariff question comes from the diversity of commodities with which we have to deal. Thf tariff on certain articles increases the price: on certain other articles it has no effect whatever, and on certain other articles it lowers the price. The tariff on wool is one of those cases where the tariff lowers the price. The Argus has devoted some little time to studying up on this subject during the past few weeks, and desires to lay the conclusions at which it has arrived before its readers in a candid manner, that they riiay be saved the trouble of posting themselves to which it was put. The first fact which may be stated is that a removal of the duty upon wool will increase the foreign importation of wool. That has been the experience in the past, and will be the experience in the future, if it should be tried. But this is not an argument that it will lessen the price of American wool. There is not enough wool raised in this country to supply the American manufacturers. To use the American wool to the best advantage, the manufacturer mixes it with cheaper grades of foreign wools. The cheaper he can obtain this wool that he uses to mix with the American, the lower the cost of manufacturing or the higher price he can afford to pay for Americrn wool. It has been shown by figures which cannot be disputed that the years of increased importrtions of foreign wool have been years of aerease in the price of American wool, and also years of decrease in the importations of foreign woolen goods. In other words, the American manufacturer is placed upon a footing. where he can the better compete with the foreign manufacturer, and instead of woolen goods being smuggled in or sent through the custom houses of the country the goods are made here, using part American wool. This has created a greater demand for American wool, and increased the price of wool. These are not theoretical statements, but actual faets borne out by figures. They have been proven by the experience of the wool growers in this country in the past. THE FIRST WOOL TARIFF by which a duty was imposed upon wool was in 1824. The price of wool at once slightly decreased, and after a year or two the price feil off rapidly, so that common wool which sold in T825, when the tariff went into operation, for from 30 to 38 cents, in 1832, after eight years of protection, sold for from 25 to 30 cents, a loss of eight cents a pound under protection. In the same period, the price of full-blooded merino wool feil from 50 to 62 cents to from 40 to 45 cents. The cause of this decline can easily be found. The manufacturers were unable to use the foreign wools profitably for mixing under the heavy tariiï, and consequently the manufacture was depressed and unable to consume as largely as before, which lessened the de mand for American wool. In tact, so small was the demand at times that wool at one time sold for 20 cents, and for a whole month at 18 cents. In spite of the fact that at the time the duty was first placed upon wool, the duty on woolen goods was raised, the amount of woolen goods imported at once increased, so that the importation of $8,250,000 of woolen goods in 1824 had increased to over $11,000,000 imported in 1825. This was due to the depression of our manufactories, owing to the denial of a choice of raw material. So that the tariff on wool meant a decrease of the importation of wool, but an increase in foreign woolen goods used in this country. How much better for the American grower to have woolen goods used, in which American wool was mixed, rather than foreign goods in which no American wool was contained! THE TARIpF REDT; In 1S32, the evil effects of the high tariff on wool having been by this time demonstrated.it was greatly lowered by a bilí which provided for its further reduction frora year to year. The price of wool at once began to go up, and four years later common wool sold for from 40 to 50 cents, which under the tarifï had only sold for from 25 to 30 cents; and merino wool, under the beneficial influenct of a reduction of the tariff, increaced in price to 50 and 68 cents. To what was this increase in price due? To the increase in the manufacturing of woolen goods. In the first five years of this reduced tariff the amount of woolen goods manufactured in Massachusetts increased 60 per cent. This increase created a greater dernand for American wool, which inrreased the price. THE SECONÖ HIGH TARIFF on wool was imposed in 1842 and lasted just four years, when the wool growers grew tired of it. The year of the enactment of the heavy duties on wool, the price of the common wool feil to from 18 to 20 cents a pound, and four years later it was still only 20 to 21 cents, while merino wool was reduced to 27 and 28 cents. The importation of woolen goods again increased as it had under the first high' tariff. "A BRITISH KKEE TRADE TARIFF" is what the advocates of protection called the tariff of 1847, which once more reduced the tarifï on wool. Wool increased in price. In the ensuing four years it had increased 13 cents a pound in price, so that he common wool averaged Z3% uenis anu ine merino wool 402 cents, and wool continued at about these prices until in 1857 still anotlier change was made in the wool tari ff. The low duties on wool urider this "f ree trade" tarift" were removed, and in 1S57 a period began of 'REE WOOL, when all foreign wool costing iS cents a pound and under was admitted free of duty. ïhis gave a free supply of wool for mixing purposes and the price of American wool at once jumped up to 37 cents. The next year came the panic of 1858, when in common with other commodities, the price of wool went down to 30 cents, owing to thestoppage of manufactories. But the next year the times brightened up and common wool brought 38 cents. In 1860, the last year of free wool, common wool brought 34 to 38 cents and merino wool 4S to 52 cents. THE WAK PERIOD is hardly a criterion in prices. In common with everything else a duty was placed on wool and a heavy duty on woolen goods. All prices were inflated. Yet in 1863 number one wool was only worth 33 to 36 cents in gold, and in 1864 it brought 31 to 33 cents in gold. In 1866 it had gotten down to 231 to 27 cents in gold, which was about 12 cents less a pound than during the last year of free wool. The price of wool has since continued to fluctuate under the tariffs on it, until under a high tariff, wool now sells at from 20 to 25 cents. In the light of history we fail to see how the tariff increases the price of wool. On the contrary the lower the tariff the higher the price to the American wool grower.