CHAPTER IX.

I. THE EFFECT OF THE FREE-WOOL ACT OF AUGUST 27, 1894, ON

SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE UNITED STATES.

SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER.

I. FREE TRADE IN WOOL v. PROTECTION.

1. The argument of cheaper clothing_answered.

Page.

163

163

2. Protection will revive the wool and woolen industries.
3. We need an increase of wool product

163

164

II. SHEEP AND WOOLEN INDUSTRIES IN THE UNITED STATES FOR HALF A
CENTURY

164

1. Statistics, 1840-1896, inclusive of (1) sheep, (2) wool, (3) wool manu-
factures, (4) imports, (5) values..

164

165

III. HOW FREE WOOL OPERATED IN TEXAS..

[From the American Agriculturist, Springfield, Mass., for week ended October 24, 1896.]

I. FREE TRADE IN WOOL v. PROTECTION.

The chief argument for free wool was that it would make clothing cheaper. It has done this to some extent. But we see no reason why, if foreign wools and woolens are admitted only upon payment of a moderate duty, home production may not be stimulated to such a degree that domestic woolens will in a few years or months sell as low as the imported does to day. That has been the experience with steel rails and thousands of other articles. Cheap woolens have been obtained during the past three years at the expense of the labor and capital employed in American mills and on American farms.

These notorious facts are not disputed. They are demonstrated in the accompanying statistical exhibit. Numbers of sheep have declined one-third, their average value has declined over a dollar per head, or 40 per cent, their total value is shrunken one half, and the average price of wool has declined more seriously than that of other staples. We can not honestly attribute all this decline to the Wilson bill. Had it perpetuated the woolen schedule of the McKinley tariff, we believe that alone would not have arrested the decline in wool prices, which has been world wide. We do believe, however, that this decline would not have been so serious. We do not believe in the most extreme or partisan views on this subject. The middle course seems to us the right one.

That a revival of our sheep, wool, and woolen industries will follow the return to moderate protection, provided there is assurance of this policy continuing for a number of years, is more certain now than was the case after the tariff of 1867 or 1883. Why? Because other produce

being so low, wool at a fair price will prove sufficiently attractive to induce farmers to increase their flocks. Again, the market for mutton has so grown as to increase the prospect.

We have no extravagant claims to put forth for a reasonable tariff on wool, but experience with free wool certainly does not justify a continuance of that policy. If return to protection means higher prices for clothing-and that remains to be proven-it will probably be but for a short time. In that case consumers will cheerfully bear it as partially reciprocating the benefits they have had from the protection on manufactures.

The real point is here: This country consumes about 500,000,000 pounds of wool each year, of which we now produce but little more than half. Now, let our farmers produce 450,000,000 pounds, importing only such as they can't raise, and we put in our farmers' pockets the money that would otherwise go out of the country for imported wool. This certainly seems wiser than to continue a policy under which this nation during the past fiscal year has paid out $85,000,000 for imported wools and woolens-especially when we have paid that sum in the form of wheat sold at low prices in competition with the degraded labor of the Argentine, Russia, and India.

II. SHEEP AND WOOLEN INDUSTRIES IN THE UNITED STATES FOR HALF A CENTURY.

The figures given in columns No. 1 to No. 8, inclusive, are millions, the round sum being easier to compare than the figures in detail. All are official data except that for 1895-96. This journal's estimate of numbers of sheep and clip of wool is considered most reliable. The average value per pound is of Ohio fleece, compiled from quotations in Circular No. 1, division of statistics, United States Department of Agriculture. The index value shows that taking the average price of wool in 1860 as 100, this year it is only 45 as the average for the first six months, compared to 53 for wheat on the same basis.

These prices of wool are in the eastern markets. The farm value is

less.

III. HOW FREE WOOL OPERATED IN TEXAS.

The following copy of a letter to Justice, Bateman & Co. illustrates the effect of free wool in Texas.

JUSTICE, BATEMAN & Co.,

out.

Philadelphia, Pa.

SEYMOUR, TEX., December 1, 1896.

DEAR SIRS: In reply to your many circulars and letters received of late would say all flock owners appreciate the interest you have manifested in their welfare, and in the election of William McKinley for President by the help of the literature you put We know he is the rock upon which we have to build our hopes. At the distance which we are apart you can not realize the condition to which we, who are engaged in sheep raising, have been brought in the past four years. In October, 1891, my clip was sold at 20 cents per pound net, while my 1894 clip netted me about 5 cents, my 1895 clip netted me 4 cents, and 1896 less than 4 cents. I have the accounts of sales to substantiate what I say if any one doubts it. The cost of raising sheep has increased instead of decreased, as we have to pay for all the range we use. It costs me $300 per year to range 2,000 sheep, $35 per month for labor, about $10 per month for board, a wagon and team, a camp outfit, salt, and many incidental expenses not enumerated, which make the cost to us nearly 50 cents a head to run our sheep, and besides we have wolves to kill the sheep.

This year's clip of this section of Texas was all shipped out by the 1st of July, and has been sold in St. Louis at 6 cents, netting the growers less than 4 cents. There is no fall shearing done in this part of the State to amount to anything of late years. So far as I could learn, all sheep owners had made up their minds to fatten and ship out their entire flocks if McKinley had not been elected, not breeding any at all; but with his election almost all are breeding their flocks, hoping to regain a part of what they lost during the past four years.

CHAPTER X.

THE EFFECT OF FREE WOOL IN OHIO.

SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER.

II. How free wool has injured Ohio woolgrowers
III. How protection benefited Ohio woolgrowers..
IV. What ample protection would have brought.

I. The views of candidates for the Presidency in 1896, on protection for the wool industry

V. The reason why ruin came to Ohio woolgrowers

VI. What can soon be with adequate wool protection.
VII. Production and export of American cereals.
VIII. Free-trade statesmanship

X. Number and value of sheep in the several counties of Ohio, 1891-1896, inclusive

XI. Number and value of sheep in Ohio, 1885 to 1890, inclusive
XII. The loss to woolgrowers in Union County, Ohio..

XIII. The loss to woolgrowers in Columbiana County

FREE WOOL AND SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN OHIO.

THE RUIN CAUSED IN OHIO BY THE FREE-WOOL ACT OF 1894.

MCKINLEY ON WOOL PROTECTION V. BRYAN ON FREE WOOL.