Woolen Manufacturers Urge Moderation

Some of the severest cnticjsms not only of special duties and clauses, but of the wbole accursed protective sys;em, come from the protected mannfac;urers themselves in their strugglewith opposing interests. Mr. S. N. D. North, secretary of the Woolen Manufacturers' association, is now and uhvayshas been ■i stanch protectionist. As such he beieves tb at the 70,000,000 consumers of this country are legitirnate subjects for plunder and that the manufacturera are the proper persons to enjoy the pro;ection plunder. The free wool experiment which we ïave been trying for three years, besides aeing au object lesson in the way of cheap woolens, has taught the woolen tuanufacturers that they can make as much or more profit with free wool and moderate protection, which permits people of moderate means to wear real woolen goods, than with high duties on both wool and woolens, which restricta the use of woolens to people in gcod circumstances. The manufacturers therefore display more than their usual modesty and patriotism in the advice which they are giving to congress. Mr. North is in Washington to voice'the manufaoturers' patriotism. Here is part of his adv ice as taken from the Washington correspondence of The Dry Goods Economist: I am free to say the bill is far from satisfactory to the woolen manufacturers. The chief fault is to be fqund with the raw wool duties, which ire so high that our manufacturera will find themselves sorely einbnrrassed. It is true the committee has provided compensatory dutiea which are probably suffioient to offset the duties on raw wool, but the difficulty will be, in my opinión, that the very considerable Lnerease in price which must be made to cover the additional cost of raw material will have the effect of eutting down eonsumption to an extent that will be disa'strous to the manufacturers. I do not contend that the rates on -.ooien manufactures in the bill are not sufflcient to protect us against too severe foreign competition, but the limit of the consumer's purchasing power must control him in buyüig woolen manufactures, and I fear the rates of the new bill will very materially restrict eonsumption. This is practically saying to Dingley, Aldrich and the other servants of the protected manufacturers at Washington: "Go slow with your high duties and don't try to protect too maiiy. If you let everybody into the protection ring, there will be nobody outside to prey upon and we will have to prey upon each other. Don't make the mistake of taxing raw materials too high. We wouldn't mind it if we could sell our goods and charge the tax over to the consumer. But when the tax is so high that we have to make our prices almost out of sight we have found that we cannot sell so many goods, because the people can't afford to wear clothes - that is, woolen clothes, which are the only ones worth considering because they are the only ones which we manufacture. Our solicitude for the dear American consumer is such that we do not wish to compel him to clothe himself in the skins of beasts, which are neather iashionable nor healthful. Let us not tax him to death. Let us be reasouable and encourage him to live and to wear clothes. By so doing we can keep our milis running and give employmént to American ■svorkingmen at American wages, which, after all, is the chief object aimed at by us protected turers. -