The American wool interest : address of Hon. William Lawrence, of Ohio, before the Farmers' National Congress, at Chicago, November 11, 1887

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/americanwoolinteOOIawrrich \<-;Lx>^L((dr^ O^ Lya. t^i^ ,:3;u..^L((drs o^ Lyc^ HP 013 Number 15. THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE TARIFF LEAGUE, 23 West Twenty-Third Street, New York. '^'^ OT th; The American Wool Interest. ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIAM LAWRENCE. OF OHIO, BEFORE THE FARMERS' NATIONAL CONGRESS, AT CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 11, 1887. T N obedience to a request of the Secretary of this Congress, I will endeavor to address you on " The American Wool Interest." This " interest " consists of that industry which produces American wool and woolen and worsted goods and mutton. The wool industry is one of the chief sources of a healthful article of food, and of an element in a chief form of clothing, and other woolen and worsted goods. The history of its introduction and gradual growth in the United States is interesting and instructive.^ But for practical purposes only that portion of it is material which illustrates the result of legislation and surrounding condi- tions, so far as they may aid in ascertaining the effect of present and pros- pective legislation and conditions, and guide us in deciding what the future ot this industry may require. The wool interest is great in the number of persons to whom it gives employment, and in the capital invested in it ; it is great by way of con- trast with other industries and in its utilities. There is no phase of it which encourages evil or brings misery to our race ; its mission is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to minister to real wants. In every age it * See U. S. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 25, Third Session, 45th Congress, January \/l, 1870. Special Report of Chief of Bureau of Statistics U. S. Treas. Dep t on Wool, etc., 1887. has been regarded as honorable, and has engaged the attention of the great, the wise and the good. Kings and princes and presidents have given it their favor and patronage, and the approving smiles of Heaven have followed it through all the ages. Shepherds were the " witnesses of the wonder that accompanied the Saviour's birth." When the Star of Bethlehem shone upon the plains of Judea, as the shepherds watched their flocks by night, an angel proclaimed to them "good tidings of great joy," and the listening winds ushered in the era of peace on earth and good-will toward men. It is in behalf of this industry — essential to the well-being of mankind, to the independence if not to the existence of every nation in peace and war — that 1 am to speak to you now. And the necessity for speaking and for action, prompt, energetic and effectual, grows out of the fact that this great industry is threatened, if not with total extinction, yet at least with such serious damage as to vastly reduce its present proportions, to avert its growth and progress, and thereby to cripple every other industry of the country. It is in danger of being transferred, with all its benefits and blessings, to alien hands and foreign lands. In performing the duty assigned me, I will endeavor to show : I. The magnitude of the American wool interest. II. What this interest may, under proper fostering influences, become. III. What are the fostering influences requisite to enable American wool growers and manufacturers to supply all the wool and woolen and worsted goods we need, and enable our people in due time to become exporters of these fabrics. IV, Justice to American agriculturists and sound policy require legislation to give American wool growers and manufacturers the whole American market, so far and so fast as it is possible for them to supply it. I. The magnitude of the wool interest. It has not been possible to obtain reliable statistics for the current year as to all the details of this industry. I will, therefore, give such as are official for the years indicated. The census of 1880 shows the number of male persons over twenty-one years of age in the United States to be 12,830,349, of whom 1,020,728 were flock owners, in addition to which were a large number of owners of sheep ranches. It is safe to say one-twelfth of all the voters of the United States are owners of sheep and are engaged in the production of wool and mutton. For the year 1884 official statistics show : Number of sheep in the United States, . . 50,626,626 Pounds of wool clip, ...... 308.000 000 Value, . . .... Iqi.ii^S.oTO Pounds of raw wool imported, .... 87.7<);?,9-?i Valu«-, ....... $i3,593,2qQ Value of manufactures of wool imported, . . . 51,484,872 The statistics of 1880 as to domestic woolen manufactures show: Number of establishments, Capital invested, Hands employed, . Wa«es paid, Value of product, . Cost of material used. Value of sheep. 2,689 $159,091,869 $47,389,087 267,252,913 164.371.551 119,902,706 The President of the National Woolgrowers' Association, Hon. Columbus Delano, has estimated the value of lands, barns, sheds and equipments employed in the sheep industry at $408,291,200. A promi- nent wool dealer ^ has said of the imports of woolen and worsted goods for the last fiscal year that they " amounted in all to $44,000,000, at im- porters' valuation ; but as recent investigations show that goods have been imported as low as thirty-two per cent, of their valuation, on the whole, it is safe to say that the undervaluations amounted to at least one- half, and $80,000,000 would be nearer the amount imported. These goods would take at least 150,000,000 pounds of our domestic wool to make." These statistics give with substantial accuracy the magnitude of " The American Wool Industry," in capital invested, the number of people em- ployed therein, and the amount and value of the product. But even this is rendered more clear by way of contrast with other industries from statistics showing ' ' the comparative value of some of the leading agri- cultural and mineral products of the United States for 1885 " as follows : A rticles. Values. Corn, ..... $635,675,000 Hay, • 389.733.000 Wheat, 275,320,000 Cotton, ..... . 269,989,81a Oats, 179,6:52,000 Coal 143,567,000 Gold and Silver, .... 83,401,000 Gold alone, ..... 31.801,000 Silver alone, .... 51.600,000 Potatoes, ..... 78.154,000 Wool 77,000,000 Pig-iron, ..... 64,714,400 Tobacco, ..... 43,266,000 Thus the value of the wool product of 1885 was shown to have been greater than that of the mines of gold and silver combined ; greater than that of pig-iron, about half as much as that of all our coal mines, nearly equal to our whole potato crop, and this does not include the value of the mutton food produced, which annually reaches many millions, reliable statistics of which I have not been able to obtain. The American wool interest includes not only the production of wool, but also the manu- facture of woolen and worsted goods. Wool growing and wool manu- 1 Edward A. Greene, of Philadelphia, published letter April 30, 1887, to Hon. Columbus Delano. Most of the statistics given in this address are taWen from the learned, able and valuable special Report on Wool, etc., made by Hon. W. F, Switzler, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, U. S. Treas. Department, 1887. facturing have prospered side by side under fostering legislation and by favorable conditions ; they have suffered together by hostile legisl?.tion and adverse conditions. They are " one as the sea." The value of the wool manufactures as contrasted with that of other principal manu- facturing industries is shown by the census of 1880 as follows : Flouring and grist mill products. Slaughtering and meat packing, 1 Iron and steel. Lumber, sawed or planed, Wool manufactures,' Foundry and machine-shop products, Cotton goods. Clothing, men's. Boots and shoes,' Sugar and molasses, refined, Tobacco manufactures, . Leather, tanned. Liquors, malt, Carpentering, Printing and publishing, Furniture, Leather, curried, . Agricultural implements, $505,185,712 303,562.413 296.557.685 270,072,085 267,252,913 214,387,468 210,950,383 209,584,460 196,920,841 155,484,915 116,772,631 "3.384,336 101,058,385 94,152,139 90,789,341 77,845,725 71,351,297 68,640,486 The annual consumption of woolen manufactures in this country in 1880 amounted, at wholesale prices, to about $303,000,000, of which $267,000,000 were of domestic and $36,oct),ooo of foreign production. The average consumption per capita in 1880 was about $6.00, of which $5.30, or 88.3 per cent., consisted of domestic, and only seventy cents, or 1 1. 7 per cent., of foreign production. The statistics of our exports show that substantially our people neither export wool nor manufactures thereof. Thus far we have either not been able, or have not been placed in a condition by legislation, to produce all we need for consumption. Thus I have endeavored to show in part the magnitude of the American wool interest. The American wool-grower and manufacturer of wool is more inter- ested in the future than in the past ; hence the second subject which requires our consideration is II. What may the American wool interest become? The answer is : It may be made in the not very far distant future to supply all the wool and woolen and worsted goods our people need. This I proceed to show : /. The present supply of sheep is inadequate to American wants. It has been said that "it can be safely predicted that, owing to the present overproduction of sheep caused by the high wool tariffs there > Not including retail butchering establishments. ' All classes ; mcludes « arpets, other than rag, felt goods, hosiery and knit goods, wool hats, woolen goods and worsted ^oods. ' Including custom work and repairing;. 5 may be little or no gain [of sheep in the United States] if not an actual loss in the near future."' " The present overproduction of sheep," indeed ! The 60,000,000 of people in the United States require for consumption annually about ten pounds of unwashed wool /^r^a/zV^, or 600,000,000 pounds. We now have 44,759,314 sheep producing about 260,000,000 pounds of wool in this year ; for the fiscal year, 1887, we imported, raw wool, 114.038,080 pounds, 'and in woolen and worsted goods, probably about 150,000,000.^ Thus, while we are importing half the wool we use, are we to be informed that there is a " present overproduction ? " It is a grave error to assert that we have an "overproduction of sheep ' for growing any kind of wool. We imported in the last fiscal year, clothing wool, 17,963,982 pounds; combing wool, 10,721,753 pounds, and so-called carpet wools, 85,352,295 pounds. We need 50,000,000 sheep more than we now have. There has been a recent re- duction in the number, as there will be hereafter, because of the ruinous effect of the wool tariff of 1883. The recent report of ihe Bureau of Statistics on Wool, etc., says (p. 41) Mr. Lynch, " is a recognized authority upon wool statistics." The foregoing figures of imports are from official statistics. The domestic wool clip is, perhaps, over-estimated. There is high authority for saying his estimates are sometimes erroneous ; that " in 1880, for instance, they made more wool than was manufactured or handled. The value of wools imported in the fiscal year, 1887, was: Clothing wools, $3,431,567; combing wools, $2,528,560 ; carpet wool, $10,464,352. Total, $16,424,- 479." // is practicable, under proper fosteting influences, and within a few years at most, to raise all the sheep and so to produce substantially all the wool we need. We have the lands ready, awaiting occupation for this purpose. On almost every farm of 160 acres in the United States, a flock of from forty to sixty sheep can be kept on pastures and with winter feed which would in a large measure go to waste. In many localities, whole counties can be utilized by sheep husbandry that will otherwise remain desolate and uninhabited forests. The mountain sides of Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, and other States, can be made to swarm with sheep, and thus add to the value of lands. 1 Rep. Bureau Statistics on Wool, etc., 1887, p. 43. 2 The Chicago Wool Groiver^ October 18, 1887, says: " The following table shows the total imports of ail descriptions of wool for the last four years, and the American clip as reported by James Lynch : PRODUCTION AND IMPORTS OF WOOL, POUNDS. IMPORTS. Year. Clothing. Combing. Carpet. Total. A merican Cli^. 1884 21,175,228 4,414,252 52,761,170 78,:?5o,65i 337,500,000 1885 11,475,889 2,780,751 56,330.530 70.596,170 320,600 -TOO 1886 40,068,537 7,198.534 80,917,887 129.084,958 322,300,000 1887 17.963,982 10.721.753 85.352.295 114,038,030 Average, 22,895,909 6,278,824 68,842,720 98,017,452 329,800,000 and relieve the burdens of taxation in those States. In many of the older States, whole counties are made up of hilly latids, worn by cultivation and the washing of rains until they can no longer be cultivated, but which have been made and can be kept fertile by sheep husbandry, and if not used for this purpose, must be turned out as waste. These lands can be devoted alternately to this industry and to cultivation, and thus permanently utilized. So it has been said: "From Mexico to the British possessions, from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, an area of more than a thousand million acres (not including Alaska), has been for ages the home of countless numbers of the buffalo, of the antelope, and on the higher ele- vations, the Rocky Mountain sheep and the Rocky Mountain goat. Relatively few are the acres that do not supply some form of vegetation for herbivorous animals."^ Here are millions of acres which can be used for no other purpose, and will be idle, uninhabited wastes unless so utilized. And it has been demonstrated, theoretically and practically, that sheep husbandry, under proper conditions, can be made profitable in the so- called Southern States. In a report to Congress from the Department of Agriculture, in 1878, it is said : " The sixteen States lying between Dela- ware and Missouri, and between the Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico, had a population, in 1870, of 13,877,615, and two-thirds of all engaged in occupations . . . were in some rural avocation. Nearly half this acreage, amounting to more than 200,000,000 acres, is in wild pasturage of more or less value for subsistence of farm stock, and much of the herbage is unutilized to-day. Sheep do well in these regions, which comprise all the climates and soils of the temperate zone."^ The same conditions in a large measure remain, but with a capacity for sheep hus- bandry increased by the clearing of lands and the cultivation of grasses. The Southern States are now largely engaged in sheep husbandry.' The Tariff Commission of 1882 in their report said that " the first phase of the industry of wool production that arrests the attention of the 1 Prof. J. R. Dodge, 1879, in Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 15, 3d Sess., 45th Cong. The hill lands in the older States, and much of the region here described, can be used for sheep, but not for cattle, because the water supply is limited, and sheep do with less water than cattle. » Senaie Ex. Doc. No. 25, 3d Sess. 45th Cong., January, 1879. The U. S. Consul at Buenos Ayres, in his report, June, 1887, says wool can be raised in " the desert portions of Texas and New Mexic<< and Arizona, whose arid soil and the general scarcity of water are a great drawback to their proper development." And he says "sheep will fill an industrial gap in these regions, which otherwise we can scarcely hope to find a filling for," and this would give us a new source of national wealth. ' See Rep. on Wool, etc., Bureau of Statistics, 1887, p. 39. John Consalus, of Troy, N. Y., a prominent wool dealer, says in the American IVool Reporter ^ September 1, 1887 : " Texas can grow as large an amount of wool as is now clipped in all our States and Territories, and under proper protection it will be done." • The statistics of 1887 show sheep now in the States as follows : Texas, 4,761,831 ; West Virginia, 593,666; North Carolina, 450,063; Missouri, 1,182,272; Virginia, 449,333 ; Cahfomia, 6,069,698. economist is its general distribution. Not a State in the Union, and in some of these, not a county, but has some portion of its wealth invested in wool production." And it has been shown that sheep husbandry is so diversified in its character, the kinds of wool produced, and in the varieties of sheep, that it can be successfully and profitably conducted, not only on cheap lands, but, in some forms, in the older States and on high- priced lands. Thus it has been said, "An important branch of this industry, and one that many have found quite profitable on lands worth $ioo an acre, is the raising of early lambs. New Jersey, lying between the two largest markets in the country, which feed a population of 2,000,000, is famed for the high price of all feeding material ; and yet this branch of sheep husbandry flourishes there as in no other State in the country."^ The vast prairies and plains of Texas, of the Territories, and some of the Western States, furnish grass on which mutton sheep can be grazed for a time, but they do not furnish grains to fatten them for market. The time is not far distant when these plains and prairies, with their cheap pasturage, will supply the older States with cheap mutton sheep, as they now do cattle, to be grazed on their tamer pastures and fattened on their grains and other food, thus blending the interests of different portions of the country, and yielding profit to both. There is no con- flict, but mutual harmony and concurrence of interest, between all por- tions of the country. Enough has been said to show" that we have all the lands to produce all the sheep we need. We have the people ready for the work. With all our industries, there are too many willing hands that are unemployed. If they can find a market which will pay a reasonable price for all the wool we need, they stand ready to produce it. If wool growing be made as profitable as wheat raising, a portion of the labor devoted to that branch of agricultural industry will be trans- ferred to sheep husbandry. In the fiscal year of 1887, there was an over- production of wheat of 101,971,940 bushels, which, for want of an adequate home market, we exported, thereby shipping abroad the fertility of our soil, never to be returned. Every bushel should have been con- sumed on American soil by persons engaged in manufacturing goods which we now import, fashioned from wool and cotton, and iron and steel, and wood, and crockery-clay, and glass-sand, and other materials. Some objections have been urged to the protection of our wool industries, and to these I will give some attention. OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. The Secretary of the Treasury in his Annual Report of December 6, 1886, in discussing the wool tariff of 1883, says: "The tax [tariff] * See Senate Ex. Doc. No. 25, 3d Sess. 45th Cong., January, 1^7^. p. u, which explains how the industry is conducted. 8 prevents our manufacture and export of competing woolens that require the use or admixture of non-American wools, and so restricts ihe home demand, thus making the export of our domestic woolens impossible." In other words (i), we cannot raise all the wool we need, but require foreign wools to mix with ours in the manufacture of domestic woolens, and (2), with free wool we could now export woolen goods. Here are two errors. He does not venture to say what kinds or how much foreign wool we need, or to inform us what classes of wool need the "admixture." The legislation of Congress commencing with the tariff act of March, 1867, makes three classes of wool, clothing, combing and carpet wools: clothing wool for the manufacture of cloth, combing wool for the man- ufacture of worsted goods,' including delaines, &c. , and carpet wool for the manufacture of carpets.^ The clothing wools were generally varieties of Merino, the combing wools, the long wools, and the carpet wool of coarse inferior qualities largely imported from Russia. Since 1867 ma:- chinery has been so improved that Merino wool can be combedand manufactured into worsteds.^ In 1867 carpet wools were used exclu- sively for the manufacture of carpets ; now they are largely used — to the extent of probably 40,000,000 pounds annually — in making clothing goods.* Thus the tariff acts of 1867 and of 1883, and their classifications, are no longer applicable to existing conditions. But the fact remains, that we need wool for the manufacture of cloth, for worsted goods, and for carpets. I believe it has never been suggested that we cannot raise all the wool we need for the manufacture of woolen cloth. It is equally certain that we can raise all the combing wools we need. The only pretense of any actual necessity for the importation of foreign wool is that some of the Australian wool when manufactured into delaines, will give a lustre which cannot be obtained from wool exclusively American. It is said that this lustre is ** now required by the dictates of fashion," But it is also said that "it is only fashion, and not use fulness that requires" this lustre, and further that " it would require a few years of breeding (in America) to get 1 Worsted manufactures include " all wool and cotton warp, delaines, challis, bareges, imitation bareges, all wool and part wool reps and worsted yarns for carpets and hosiery." Rep. Bureau Statis. 2 Wm. H. B. Thornton, of Chicago, in the United Sidies Economist and Dry Goods Reporter of August ij, 1887, refers to " wools of a strictly carpet nature, such as Donskoi, Native Smyrna, Cordova, Valparaiso, Native South American, and wools of the like nature coming from '1 urkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, or elsewhere. • See Rrp. Bureau Statistics on Wool, &c., 1887, pp. 25, 41. * Mr. Bond, in an article published in the recent Report of the Bureau of Statistics on Wool, for 1887, p. 64, says the imports of carpet wool for 1887, "amounted to 81,504,477 pounds, the extreme amount of which I estimate could be used for clothing purposes would be about 8,800,000 pounds." Theodore Justice, of Philadelphia, in a letter. May 5, 1886, says: "Out of the millions of pounds of carpet wool imported, it is on good authority admitted that 60 per cent, of them are used for clothing purposes, thereby taking the place of that much of the better bred American wools." Edward A. Greene, of Philadelphia, in a published letter of May 2, 1887, says : " The greatest wrong to our wool-growers, however, is the importation of carpet wools. of which 86,000,000 pounds were imported last year. Not over ;|o,ooo,ooo pounds 01 these woob were used for carpets, the balance being used for clothing purposes. 9 the same effect as some of the Australian wools.''' With every variety of soil, climate and environment, we can in a brief ^pace of time raise wool to produce any lustre which can be obtained from foreign wool. But if this were not so, in a contest between American interests and the dictates of fashion without any utility or necessity, the folly of fashion must be made to yield. If any there be who will shine in foreign lustre, let them "pay dear, very dear, for their whistle," and soon the general fashion will outshine the foreign folly.' But, can we raise all the carpet wools we need ? I answer, yes ; all we need ; soon, very soon. In this I am fortified by abundant evidence. The Bureau of Statistics, in a recent elaborate, able and instructive Report on Wool, &c., quotes from " Mr. James Lynch, of New York, a recognized authority upon wool statistics," this declaration : "It may be said that the coarse wools from any section may be used for carpets." The same report quotes with approval the statement of the profound and eminent statistician J. R. Dodge : " That 'the carpet wool product of the United States is almost exclusively the fleece of sheep of Mexican origin, which are raised chiefly in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and cer- tain of the Territories of the mountain region of the country situated between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific slope." And Mr. Lynch furnishes the Bureau of Statistics the following statement of wool pro- duction in the United States for the year ended, June 30, 1883. Clothing wool 233,000,000 11,546,530 Combing wool 65,000,000 1,373,114 Carpet wool 22,000,000 40,130,323" Total 320,000,000 Now, if in the fiscal year 1S83 we produced 22,000,000 pounds of carpet wool, why can we not in the near future produce three or five or even ten times as much ? There are undoubtedly localities in the mountain regions of some of the Territories where Merinos and long wool sheep may not thrive, but where the hardier varieties of the nstive Mexican sheep, or those partly so, may still be produced sufficiently to give us wool as coarse and inferior in other respects as the meanest Donskoi. Such sheep may be made in due time to utilize a region avail- able for nothing else. A well informed authority says : " Even for car- pet purposes one of the largest manufacturers [of carpets] claims our wool to be the best [for carpets] and worth more intrinsically, but the demand for cheap carpets in price (not in wear) prevents him "using it." He then proceeds to say that even for the purpose of making the cheap and inferior carpets for such demand as there is for them, that: "Five 1 Kdward A. Greene, of Philadelphia, letter to Wm. Lawrence, May 2, 1887. ' See Report No. 42 of Joseph Nimmo, Jr., Chief Bureau of Statistics, Sept. 10, 1884, p. 544. lO million pounds of this [inferior foreijjn carpet] wool (no more) may be a necessity, ail the balance should be and can be raised here."' But if it be true, as has been claimed,^ that the production of the cheapest classes of inferior carpet wools " would be unprofitable for the farmer to grow," because " the American farmer can produce wool with the same amount of cost and attention, yielding twic.- as many pounds of wool for each sheep " and realizing larger returns, then I would say let the lowest grade of inferior wool be imported for the sole purpose of making the cheaper carpets, and if necessary let it come with a nominal duty, if by any legislation its use can be so limited that it shall not be employed in debasing other goods with which to defraud American citizens. In view of all this it is safe to assert, that we cati soon produce all the clothing and combii7g wools we need ; that no admixture of foreign wools is required to give success to wool growing or wool manufacturing ; that in all probability we can in a few years supply all the carpet wools we need, but in any event, the importation of but a comparatively small amount will be required. It is by no means true that free foreign wool would enable our manufacturers to export woolen goods. The cheaper labor in other countries gives them such an advantage, that we cannot compete with them in the markets of the world, except under Com- mercial Treaties which can as well secure foreign markets for pro- tected wool and woolen goods as for free wool. Wool is but a small part of the cost of manufactured goods, and any temporary increase in price by a tariff canrot materially affect it. Probably 80 per cent, of the cost consists in the wages of labor, and it is this that affects prices. It will requi-e some years to enable our manufacturers to supply our own wants — when that period arrives we can consider the question of exporting. 3. American manufacturers can under proper fostering influences, and after a brief space of time, produce substantially all the woolen and wor- sted goods we require. The skill which fabricates our present product is capable of all necess^r)- expansion. And ia the not far distant future, with commerciil treaties with other American Republics, Brazil, Japan and some other nations, and with the much needed increase of the American Mercantile Marine, our manufacturers can become exporters of their fabrics, and take that high position in the commerce of the world for which American resources, enterprise, skill and industry so eminently qualify them. If we are true to ourselves, the day will soon dawn, when we will no longer be dependents on foreign supplies. Thus the question is answered what may the American Wool Interest become ? 1 Edward A. Greene, Philadelphia, April 30, 1887, letter to Columbus Delano, President National Wool Growers Association. ' Vol. \\. Rep. Tariff Commission 1883, p. 2335. UITIVEESl oir in. What are the fostering influences: jgajgi^^-^gtf^ABLE American Wool . Growers and Manufacturers to supply all THE wool and woolen AND WORSTED GOODS WE NEED, AND IN DUE TIME TO ENABLE OUR PEOPLE TO BECOME EXPORTERS OF THESE? I answer unhesitatingly, that chief among them is, protective legisla- tion, which will exclude the foreign product so far zx\A so fast as we can supply what we need. Our true policy is, that Americans shall patronize and g?ve employment to American rather than to foreign producers, and thereby secure employment for idle hands ; give American wages for American services, enlarge our resources, and with them our own abund- ance, and no longer be dependent for the clothes we wear on foreign capital, labor and skill. I will not discuss y^\^ general policy of a protec- tive tariff. That is not involved in the question whether we should give to American farmers the privilege of supplying all the wool we need. Our lands are here and cannot be removed ; they must be rendered available in every possible form, or so far as they are not, they are idle and unproductive. Our capital is already invested, and our labor is here awaiting employment. The question is not whether we shall build up new industries generally, or create new plants — it is now whether we shall utilize the plant we have in land^ and in order to do this, increase our plants of woolen and worsted manufactures. And now I address myself to the question — Why should we demand protective legislation ? This is an inquiry to which there are several answers. I. We cannot supply American wants with American wool, or woolen or worsted goods, without protection. We will be driven from these in- dustries by foreign competition. This may be proved by the opinions of those who have studied the subject, and by the logic oi facts. The chief of the Bureau of Statistics at Washington, in his recent Report on Wool, says : " It is idle to talk about raising sheep in Europe, or m this country, to compete with South Africa or the Platte country or Australia. Our sheep farming must eventually be confined to small flocks of improved breeds, raised on farms where they require little or no extra labor. It has already come to this in Europe, and in the Eastern and Middle States, where lands are valuable, and will finally prevail in the West as the large ranches are divided up and settled. The conditions are entirely different in South Africa, Australia and South America, where laborers are at least semi-barbarians or peons, and the immense plains of cheap lands and torrid climate seem better adapted to sheep raising than other industries." ^ That is, without an adequate protective tariff, wool growing will not be remunerative, and so as an industry will perish. And in the same report he tells us that even under the present wool tariff of Report, p. 46. 12 1883 "it can safely be predicted that . . . there may be little or no gain in numbers [of sheep], if not an actual loss in the near future." Another thoroughly well-informed expert says : " In this country, where wages are high and the necessaries of life and social conditions so widely diflerent from the Old World, it is evident that competition without protection is impossible. Italy has her sheep attended by shepherds at two cents per day, their only food, black bread soaked in oil ; India, Turkey, Persia, Russia, wages and modes of living on about the same scale ; South America, Cape of Good Hope and Australia, but one step higher. As the natives in most of these countries attend the flocks, they require but little cloth- ing, and they get but a mere pittance, barely sufficient to sustain life." * The logic of facts proves that without adequate protection we cannot render wool growing remunerative here. In Australia, South America and other countries " no provision is necessary for food and shelter in the winter season other than that provided by the bounty of nature."^ They furnish an extent of territory practically unlimited with lands almost without cost ; they have immense flocks of sheep, they can increase their number almost without limit, and supply the world with an abundance of every class and grade of wool.^ They can furnish wool at prices so low thai they can defy competition and annihilate every flock in the United States, unless we shall be saved by protection. The report of the Tariff Commission shows that in 1882 Buenos Ayres unwashed cloth- ing— equal to Ohio and Pennsylvania X wool — was quoted at 13.5 cents per pound, with cost of transportation to Boston 3.152 cents per pound/ The Chief of the Bureau of Statistics shows that under the Tariff Act of 1 John Consalus, Troy, N. Y., in the American Wool Reporter ^ September 1, 1887, !* In a report made to the State Department by Mr. O. M. Spencer, our Consul- General at Melbourne, gives the number of sheep in the Australian provinces, and says : " The above figures sufficiently mdicate the enormous pastoral wealth of Aust'alia, while its capabilities for the multiplication of live-stock is practically without limit. Such is the mildness of the climate and the adaptation of the country for grazing pur- poses, that no provision is necessary for f<'od and shelter during the winter season other than that provjded by the bounty of nature. It is believed that Queensland alone •could easily run ' from thirty to "forty million head of cattle without cultivating an acre of ground for fodder or spending a sixpence in the improvement of the natural pastuiage." — A Glance at Australia in iSSo. > llie recent Report on Wool, etc., by the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics gives something of the hstoryand extent of the wool product in India, African colonies, Australia, the Argentine Republic, Russia, etc. It says: " The countries that yield the largest surplus of wool for export are Russia, the Argentine Republic, South Africa and Australia. Their capacity for supplying the manufactures of the world seems to be ample. They have improvt-d their sheep by crossing with the Merinos, and their wools, especially those of Australia and the Platte country, are amone the finest in the world. " These two last-named countries are much alike in their peculiar fitness for sheep raising, and as yet are not taxed to anything like their capacity. Australia alone is as large in area as the United States. In Australia the plains devoted to sheep raising are in the hands of comparatively a few, who have perpetual leases of immense tracts of government lands at low rates. Some of these tracts contain as much as 100.000 acres, so that the country bids fair to continue to be a sheep- raising; section." Page 46. On pages 225-227 are tables giving the number of sheep and the product of wool ia every country of the world. « Report Tariff Commission of 1882. Vol. 11., p. 2433, 13 i864 Buenos Ayrean wools "could be bought at the Rio de la Plata under twelve cents per pound, and come in under the three-cents duty." ' The reduction of our wool produce by the Act of 1883 has increased the American demand for foreign wool, and but for this South American clothing wool could be produced for ten cents per pound and laid down in Boston for less than fifteen cents. Such wools cannot profitably be produced in our older States unwashed for less than about thirty cents per pound. The history of our own wool tariff and wool production shows that without adequate protection annihilation awaits our wool industry. Prior to the Act of March 2, 1867, Congress had failed to provide ade^ quate protection to the wool industry. ^ When the tariff bill of 1828 was under consideration in the Senate the illustrious and far-seeing states- ~ man, Thomas H. Benton, proposed to insert a clause laying a protective duty of ten per cent, per annum on wool, until it should amount to fifty per cent, ad valorem, and five per cent, afterward, until it should amount to seventy per cent. — a higher average rate of duty than has ever yet been enacted by Congress, and that, too, at a time when the expense and delay of ocean transportation were so great as in themselves to give American wool growers advantages and protection which no longer exist. His wisdom did not prevail. The result was that the wool industry languished for a long period. An accurate statistician has said : " In 18 10, when the first census of products of industry was taken, the quantity of wool produced in the United States was returned at from thirteen to fourteen million pounds. In 1812 Mr. Tench Coxe, of Philadelphia — a trustworthy 1 Report on Wool, etc., 1887, p. 60. In the same report, pages 228-231, are tables showing the prices of American wools from 1882 to 1886, and of foreign wools from 1867 to 1887. The report of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of the Commerce and Navi- gation of the United States for 1886-7, P- 883, shows^he price of domestic wool from 1877 to 1887 inclusive, and on page 878 the pnce of imported wools trom 1878 to 1887 inclusive. Ihe average price of imported clothing wool at our custom-houses was 16.2 cents per pound. At a meeting of Ohio wool growers, held January 12, 1886, an address to the Secretary of the 'I reasury was prepared by Columbus Delano, George L Converse, J. L). Taylor, David Harpster and W. W. Cowden, which quotes Joseph Walworth, the veteran wool buyer of the Pacific Mills, as saying : " A good deal of attention was given last year to the low prite of wheat in Eng- land,about one dollar a bushel, and that was the lowest price in London for a hundred years. But the price of wool was equally low. I bought combing wool in England the past season one-quarter to one-half pence cheaper than 1 ever bought it before. The price tell pretty low in 1878, but not so low as it did in 1885. It is up to a penny to a penny-halfpenny now above the lowest price. But some of the shrewdest men of England think the future is to bring us very cheap wool. A manufacturer who bet^an his career on wages of £\ a week, ar d is now worth over ;^3,ooo,ooo, told me that he expected to see wool eventually as cheap as cotton. In fact, you can buy Montevideo wool at seven pence in England to-day. Then, New Zealand is raising 60,000,000 pounds of splendid wool, and has introduced Enijlish mutton sherp and Knglish grasses, and the improvement of steam communication has practically annexed that country to the mainland of England. The shipment of frozen mntt-.n f.om New Zealand to London enables the sheep owners to produce wool at a lower cost by furnishing them a market for the flesh as well as the fleece. Even at the low prices of last year sheep farming has paid go per cent, in Australia and New Zealand, and as the market for mutton widens and competition increases there is no knowing how low the wirld may secure its wool in the future." ' The tariti rates under all acts of Congress are given in the Special Report of 1887 on Wool, etc., by the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, pp. 118-120. 14 authority — computed it to be from twenty to twenty-two million pounds. During the last four census years the number of sheep and production of wool were as follows : Year. Number o/ Sheep. Pounds o/ Wool, 1850 21,723,220 52,516.959 i860 22,471,275 60,264.913 1870 28,477,591 100,102,3871 It will be seen that the increase in the number of sheep in the decade from 1850 to 18C0 was only 748,055, equivalent to 2>% per cent. Then came the first and only just, sufficient, and, for the time it was in force, effectual, tariff act of March 2, 1867. This act classifies wools into clothing, combing and carpet wools. It imposed duties as follows : "6>« clothing wools, unwashed; value 32 cents per lb. or less, 10 cents per lb. and 11 per cent, ad valorem. Value exceeding 32 cents per lb., 12 cents per lb. and 10 per cent ad valorem. Washed, double duty. " On combing wools; value 32 cents or less per lb., 10 cents per lb. and II per cent, ad valorem. Value exceeding 32 cents per lb., 12 cents pei lb. and 10 per cent, ad valorem. " On carpet wools; value 12 cents per lb. or less, 3 cents per lb.; value over 12 cents per lb., 6 cents per lb. " On all classes scoured, treble duty." Under the operation of this law the wool industry prospered. The in- crease in the number of sheep from i860 to 1870 amounted to 6,006,675, or 27 per cent. ; from 1870 to 1880 the increase in number was 12,287,949, or about 44 per cent. ;^ and in 1884 our sheep numbered 50,360,^43. Our wool product increased faster than our sheep ; that is, " the average weight of fleece rose from 2^ and 3^ pounds to 5 and 5^ pounds [of washed wool], according to location." ^ Thus the wool industry, for the * Edward Young, Ph. Djf formerly Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, in the May, 1881, number of America — a New York tariff periodical. The same figures for 1850, i860 and 1870 appear in the Report of 1887 0° Wool, p. 163, by the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics. 2 The Report of the Bureau of Statistics, made in 1887, on Wool, etc., page 163, states the number of sheep on farms '\v\^\ZZo zx 35,192,074; but. on page 71, the ■ of si 5 35,192,074, anri on ramhes 7,000,000. • The number of sheep and product of wool for the years specified were as follows ; /<7/rt/ number at 40,765,900. A former chief of the bureau stated the number of sheep in 1880 at 42,192,074, of which on farms 35,192,074, anri on ramhes 7,000,000. Years. Number 0/ Skeep. Product in Pounds. 1850 i860 1870 21,723,220 22,471,275 28,477,Q5i 33,783,600 52,516,959 60,264,913 100,102,387 1876 1877 35.Q35.300 35,804,200 . 1878 I88I 35,740.500 38,123,800 232,500,000 40,765,900 43,569,899 240,000,000 272,000,000 i88a 45,016,224 290,000.000 49,237,291 50.626,626 300.000,000 308.000,000 1R85 i836 50,360.243 48,322,331 302,000,000 286,000,000 1887 See Wool Rep. 1887, page 16, and Tabic No. 44<759.3i4 Bureau Statistics, pages 72, 73. Also Appendix, Table N 30, page 174. 15 first time in our history, grew rapidly, was prosperous and remunerative under the act of March 2, 1867, and up to act of March 3, 1883.' This act reduces the duties to a scale as follows : "Clothing wools, value, 30 cents per lb. or less, 10 cents per lb.; value, over 30 cents, 12 cents per lb.; washed wool, double duty. "Combing wool, value, 30 cents per lb. or less, 10 cents per lb.; value, over 30 cents per lb., 12 cents per lb. "Carpet wools, value, 12 cents per lb. or less, 2^ cents per lb.; value, over 12 cents per lb., 5 cents per lb. "All classes scoured, treble duty." In addition to this reduction, the repeal of Sections 2907 and 2908 of the Revised Statutes, remitting charges, commissions, etc., made a further material reduction.* But the reduction of duties on wool is not the only ruinous feature of the act of 1883. "When that act was passed, the class of goods known as 'worsted' was made of \ong staple combing wopl. The temptation to import goods under the low duty of the worsted clause has led to such improvements in machinery that any kind of wool can now be combed ; so that many of the finest goods, made of short staple clothing wool, afte^the same has been combed, are called worsteds, and we see fine worsted yarn supplied to thb country at a lower duty than would be charged on the raw material oi which these goods are made. There is surely no protection to the wool grower in such a tariff as this. If the present irregular and unsatisfactory schedules on worsteds remain, there is little hope of higher prices for wool. The repeal of the worsted clause would then leave all worsteds to be classed under the woolen schedule, which is sufficiently pro- tective, and would increase the scoured value of American wool. By checking ex- cessive importations, the surplus revenue would be decreased, and, what is better, manufactured goods, made by American mills out of American wool, would then supply our home market. So long as we manufacture only one-half of the goods we use, it is folly to talk about seeking the markets of the world. We are at present suffering from the flooding of this country with overproduction of woolen goods, which are brought in under the present ill arrangement of the tariff. American mills are shutting down, and American wools are neglected and declining in price, while foreign mills are running day and night to supply this country with goods."' 1 I he pri' es of wools from 1817 to 1885 are shown in Statement No. 17 of Quarterly Report No. 3, Series 1885-6. of the Bureau of Statistics. The Quarterly Report No. 4, 1886-7, page 883, shows the price from 1877 to 1887. The New York prices for 1882, 1883 jnd 1884 are found more satisfactory in Statement No. 42 in regard to wool, etc., in the special report of the Bureau of Statistics made by Joseph Nimmo, |r., ( hief of Bureau, September 10, 1884, "on the operaticms of the tariff act of March 3, 1883, for the six months ending December 31, 1883, the average prices being as indicated below : Year. Fine-, Cents. Medium., Cents, Coarse., Cents. 1882 42 43 31 1883 ^0% 42 3. 1884, January 40 39 32 The New York and Philadelphia prices for different classes o^wool from 18^4 to 1887 are shown in the Special Report of 1887 on Wool, etc., by the Bureau of Statistics, Table No. 12, passes 110-118, and liable No. 69, page 228. Immediately ?fter the act of 1867 the paper money prices of wool declined, because of the increasing value of such money ; because all previous war prices declined ; be- cause " larce quantities of army clothing accumulated during the war were thrown upon the market at exceedingly low prices," and for other reasons shown in the Wool Report of 1887, pages 61, 62. ' See page S4i, Nimmo''* Report of September 10, 1884, before referred to in note. ' Justice, Bateman & Co., Philadelphia Wool Dealers' Circular, November 1, 1887 Wool Rep., 1887, Bureau rf Statistics, 42. i6 The eff^ of this act has been to make wool production unprofitable by reducing the price ; to reduce the number of our sheep and of our wool products, thereby to encourage and increase the importation of foreign wools, and give American patronage to foreign producers instead our own.' It has reduced our sheep, 5,867,312 in number, when, on the basis of increase under the tariff of 1867, there should have been an in- crease of 6,000,000, making a loss equal to about 13,000,000 sheep, and a loss in clip of wool of 48,000,000 pounds, worth $14,400,000. Thus the wool growers have lost by decrease of flocks in reduced wool product $14,400,000, and in price of wool they produced in 1887 at least $26,000,000. And we are correctly told that under the tariff act of 1883 there is "in the near future " to be a continued and actual growing loss in number.* The imports of wool in 1882 were 67,861,744 ; in 1887 they were 114,038,030,^ when they should have been reduced to 40,000,000, and under proper protection might have been less. It has been suggested that the older wool growing States have been suffering by competition in Texas and the Territories, and especially by ranch competition ; that the industry is moving westward, and that this is tfie cause of the decline of the wool industry in the older States. But here again the logic of facts and of reason is against this theory. Since 1884 there has been a decrease in the number of sheep in almost every State and Territory of the United States. Take the seven groups into which the Bureau of Statistics has divided our vast domain, and given the number of sheep for 1884 to 1887 inclusive in each, and there is a decrease shown as follows : * 1 All this is shown by the Report on Wool, etc., 1887, by the Bureau of Statistics. As to prices in Philadelphia : Classes 0/ Wool. Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia- Fleece washed XX, " " X . Half Blood, .' " . ' . * . 8uarter Blood, ommon and Cotted, . Texas, Fine Northern and Eastern, " Med'ura Northern and Eastern, " Coarse " Improved Western and Southern, ♦' Coarse Sec Rep., pp. 110-116. THE NiJMBER OF SHEEP AND WOOL PRODUCT. Year. No. 0/ Sheep. ' Wool Product. 1884 50,62^,626 308,000,000 1887 44.759.314 865,«oo,ooo Rep. pp. 43-7». « Wool Rep., 1887, Bureau of Sutistics, p. 43, » Wool Rep., 1887, p. 73. * Wool Report, 1887, Bureau Sutistics, 165. 1882. 1887. Cents per lb. Cents per lb. • 4a 34 , 41 31K • ■♦♦ . yi% 37>^ 37 • 30 3° . 99 20M • 29 23 20 i6J^ 22j^ x&% • i7j^ 14K 17 Recapitulation by Groups. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. New Kngland States .... 1,384,888 1,283,809 1,249,338 1,237,085 Middle States 3.792.675 3.498,425 3.083.594 2,968.032 Southern States 12,950,761 12,468,301 11,534,652 9,241,449 Western States 15,636,760 15,244,052 15,131,912 14,332,538 Pacific Coast 9,616,092 9,370,617 9,745,058 9,892,652 Territories 7,245,450 8,495,039 7.577.787 7.087,558 Total United States . . 50,626,626 50,360,243 48,322,331 44,759,314 I have a table prepared by the eminent and accurate statistician of the Department of Agriculture ^ showing the number of sheep in each State and Territory for the years 1850, i860, 1870, 1884 and 1887, and it fully verifies the facts I have stated. Then, again, there is no competition between the older States and Territories and Texas, because the whole product of all is about one-half the wool we consume. It may be that Texas and the Territories can produce certain kinds of sheep, and certain kinds of wool cheaper than the older States. Our wants require precisely this variety. Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan, and other central States produce "for certain purposes the best wool in the world. It has no equal anywhere, and in the Territories it has no pret