rial especially urges that Congress will give to these industries the most ample aid and encouragement.

The production of rice, grapes, oranges and some other fruits, hemp, and flax needs encouragement. They should have the most ample protection.

factory would work up the product of 2,000 acres of sugar beets, and the 920 factories would utilize the product of 1,840,000 acres. At an average of ten tons of sugar beets per acre, this would equal 18,400,000 tons of beets, which would be the amount of beets necessary to produce the sugar now imported. The total number of men employed in the factories and in the beet fields would represent a population of about 2,500,000 people.

BEET GROWING AS AN AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY.

The total average amount annually paid to our farmers for sugar beets required by 920 factories, in order to produce 1,718,894 tons of sugar now imported, would be: For 18,400,000 tons of beets, at $4.20 per ton, $77,280,000, 40 per cent of which (or about $30,000,000) would on an average represent the farmers' share of the total sum earned.

The annual production of sugar in the United States, from 1888 until 1896, was as follows:

Sugar beets can be successfully grown over the greater portion of the United States, and States unable to grow beets produce sugar cane or sorghum. Farmers receive from $4 to $5 a ton for their beets, delivered, according to location of factory. The following is from an able article by Hon. John M. Stahl, editor Farmers' Call, Quincy, Ill., and secretary of the Farmers' National Congress:

"HOME OR FOREIGN SUGAR, WHICH?

"Each year we send abroad more than $100,000,000 for sugar. All doubt of our possessing the soil and climate over a sufficient area to produce from beet the sugar we now import has been removed. Our natural advantages for the production of beet sugar are such that, notwithstanding the higher wages paid here, aid given our beet-sugar industry equivalent to that which has been given to their beet-sugar industries by France and Germany by means of bounties, exemption of land from taxation, etc., would undoubtedly rapidly build up our sugar production. The McKinley law, by means of a bounty, gave to our beet-sugar industry the encouragement that the history of the industry in Germany and France has shown to be wise and highly advantageous to the nation. Under the operation of the McKinley law our production of beet sugar rapidly increased. Here are the figures:

1891

1892 1893

Pounds. 12, 004, 838

27, 003, 322 44, 836, 527

"Had the McKinley law bounties been continued, we would in a comparatively few years have produced at home not only the four thousand million pounds of sugar we now consume, but the increased consumption due to our increased population. It is probable that no other piece of legislation in our history has shown a greater lack of business sense than the repeal of the sugar bounties, and certainly few other legislative enactments in our history have done our agricultural interests a greater injury or subjected the country to greater ultimate financial loss. To produce four thou

It has been alleged by the National Woo growers' Association of the United States, that great damage has been wrought to the wool industry by vicious legislation. We ask from you a careful consideration of the matter.

IV. THE WOOL INDUSTRY.

Under normal conditions the present population of the United States will consume annually 9 pounds per capita of wool, on the unwashed basis, or in all 630,000,000 pounds, requiring 110,000,000 sheep for production.

1. EFFECT OF TARIFF LEGISLATION.

It has been demonstrated that if the wool tariff of 1867 had been continued in force to this time, with improvements to adapt it to changed conditions, we would now have a sufficient number of sheep to supply all the wool of every kind needed for consumption in this country. The tariff act of 1883 reduced the duties on wool, and under it sheep declined in numbers.5

4

The free wool act of August 1, 1894, was the most ruinous blow ever aimed at our great sheep husbandry industry. The Hon. S. N. D. North, the able secretary of the National Wool Manufacturers' Association, in an article in the September number, 1896, of the Bulletion of that association, said:

Under the act of 1890 the flocks of the United States had reached a total of 47,223,000, and were increasing at the rate of about 1,000,000 a year. With a value of $2.50 a head in 1892, our flocks were worth $118,057,500. They have been decreasing at the rate of 3,000,000 annually, under free wool; and their number had receded on April 1, 1896, to 36,464,405, with an average value of $1.70 a head. The loss in number is more than 10,000,000 in three years, and in value over $60,000,000. The clip of the present year, according to the annual estimates of the National Association, will not exceed 270,000,000 pounds, and the average farm value will not exceed 8 cents a pound, reducing the total value to $20,800,000-a loss of 60 per cent.

*

* *

Land

sand million pounds of beet sugar would require one million acres of land and the wages paid to farm and factory labor would amount to $75,000,000 per annum. and labor now devoted to crops of small profit and of which we produce an excess, like wheat, would be put to a more profitable use. The $75,000,000 each year would swell our domestic commerce by at least four times that amount. If we had produced our own sugar, instead of gold having been exported during the past three yearsan export that has widely hurt our industries and business-gold would have been imported, for the more than one hundred million dollars of gold, or its equivalent, sent abroad each year for sugar would have been kept at home."

AS TO HEMP AND FLAX.-The "most ample protection" for hemp, flax, and their manufactures would soon enable Kentucky, Tennessee, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and other States to supply all the fibers and manufacturers to make all into fabrics sufficient to supply all American needs.

This would (1) add to our wealth, (2) give employment to our people, (3) diversify our industries, (4) relieve the overproduction of wheat, and (5) bring general prosperity.

4 See Senate Mis. Doc. No. 124, Fifty-third Congress, second session, p. 22; Senate Mis. Doc. No. 77, Fifty-third Congress, second session, pp. 7, 17-24; Senate Doc. No. 17, Fifty-fourth Congress, first session, p. 34.

5 Under the tariff act of 1867 the prices of wool were fairly remunerative. Sheep increased from 28,477,951 in 1870, producing 100,102,387 pounds of wool, to 50,626,626 in 1884, producing 308,000,000 pounds. In four years, from January, 1880, to January, 1884, sheep increased in number 24 per cent. Then, unfortunately, came the tariff act of March 3, 1883, reducing wool duties. Under it sheep declined in number from 50,626,626 in 1884, with a wool clip of 308,000,000 pounds, to only 43,431,136 in 1891, producing 285,000,000 pounds.

These statistics are from the Department of Agriculture. And Mr. North says:

Mr. W. R. Snow formerly the assistant statistician of the Department of Agriculture, a man thoroughly cognizant of the methods of obtaining these figures, has recently completed an independent investigation, which reduces the total number of sheep now in the country to 32,000,000, more than 4,000,000 below the Government figures, and indicating a loss in the last three years of 15,250,000 sheep.

2. TARIFF AND PRICES.

The effect of tariff legislation on prices of wools is well understood."

6 The Boston Commercial Bulletin, of November 14, 1896, justly says "no industry has suffered so terribly as woolgrowing."

HOW FREE WOOL REDUCED THE PRICES OF WOOLS.

The following statistics, compiled from the wool circulars of Justice Bateman & Co., of Philadelphia, show the price of wool in that and other Eastern cities, under the McKinley Act, until the election of 1892, gave the certainty of free wool, and the continued and further decline in price after the Wilson bill became a law :

Table showing the price per pound for the leading grades of American wool in the Eastern market and on the farm on January 1 and July 1 for the years 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, and 1896.

Every woolgrower knows that these free-wool prices are ruinous to American sheep husbandry. The secretary of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers said of the wool clip in the United States in 1896:

The clip of the present year, according to the annual estimates of the National Association, will not exceed 270,000,000 pounds, and the average farm value will not exceed 8 cents a pound, reducing the total value to $20,800,000—a loss of 60 per cent. (See Bulletin of the Association, September, 1896.)

(Continuation of footnote from page 25.)

Table showing the price per pound for the leading grades of American wool in the Eastern market, etc.-Continued.

V. DEFECTS IN THE WOOL TARIFF ACT OF 1890.

1. THE 66 SKIRTING CLAUSE.'

The act of 1890 was found in practice to contain "loopholes" or defects, which, in a large measure, defeated its purpose, especially (1) the "skirting clause" and (2) the low ad valorem duties; hence, under it wool prices declined and the increase of sheep was small.

(Continuation of footnote from page 26.)

Table showing the price per pound for the leading grades of American wool in the Eastern market, etc.-Continued.

7 The defects in the wool tariff provision of the act of October 1, 1890, are somewhat fully discussed in Senate Document No. 17, Fifty-fourth Congress, first session, pages 37, 45-52, 60-71, 83, 137, 138, 150-154 to which reference is ÉSPECIALLY made. See Chapter II of this Document, footnote 25.

Under that act, sheep declined in numbers in Texas, where the cost of growing wool is less than in most other States. (See Senate Document No. 17, Fifty-fourth Congress, first session, pp. 181, 209. It is there shown that the prices of wool would not pay the cost of production, p. 70, 107.)

Under that act the price of wool constantly declined.

This subject is fully discussed in Senate Document No. 17, above mentioned.