the cost of top making, has been added to the cost of converting tops into yarn; that is, the 50 per cent added to the cost of combing in computing the cost of top making is not here added in computing the total conversion cost of yarn. The reason for this is the fact that some of the costs incidental to a combing establishment are absent where combing is merely one department of a spinning mill.

In Table 8 the net protection on worsted yarns given by the La Follette, Underwood, and Compromise bills is computed and compared with the findings of the Tariff Board.

TABLE 8. THE NET PROTECTION GIVEN TO WORSTED YARNS BY
THE LA FOLLETTE, UNDERWOOD, AND COMPROMISE BILLS
AND COMPARED WITH THE FINDINGS OF THE

In Table 8 the total cost of the yarn is computed in substantially the same way as it was computed in the case of

tops (Table 5); that is, an allowance of 122 per cent to cover distribution expenses and profit was taken from the price. From the total cost was subtracted the English conversion cost in order to determine the cost of wool in 1 pound of yarn (column 5). Column 5 is then multiplied by the rates on raw wool in the respective bills in order to determine the amount of yarn duty needed for compensation. Columns 9,

10, and 11 are the rates on yarn in the respective bills times the price and less the compensatory duty. The result gives the net protection furnished by each bill and should be compared with the protection needed according to the findings of the Tariff Board (column 12).

The protection on yarns needed according to the Tariff Board in Table 8 is a minimum. The net protection given by even the La Follette bill falls in most cases slightly under the protection required. It may be fairly said that 45 per cent on the basis of 35 per cent on raw wool is not, according to the Tariff Board, sufficient protection. The fact should be noted, also, that a decline in the price of yarns would, under ad valorem duties, reduce the net protection given.

Table 9 presents the total protection and compensation given

TABLE 9. THE TOTAL DUTIES ON WORSTED YARNS UNDER THE
PENROSE AND HILL BILLS COMPARED WITH THE FINDINGS
OF THE TARIFF BOARD

by the Penrose and Hill bills on yarns and the amount required according to the findings of the Tariff Board.

The yarn duty in the Penrose bill, as shown in column 2, is a graded specific duty-graded according to the count of the yarn. The duty in the Hill bill is a compound duty, and the computations for the yarns in the table are shown in column 3. Column 4 shows the protection and compensation, in cents, required according to the Tariff Board and is made up of a compensatory duty of 23 cents per pound, and the difference in conversion costs for yarns as found in column 12 of Table 8. It will be noticed that this compensatory duty is higher than the one recommended by the board when the duty on raw wool is 18 cents.23 This is a concession to the critics of the board who said that the compensatory duty should be based, not on the scoured content of grease wool, but on the duty on scoured wool which in a bill with a duty of 18 cents on the scoured content of grease wool would be at least 19 cents. In this article, therefore, the benefit of the doubt on this point has been resolved in favor of the manufacturer, and the compensatory duty has been based on the recommendations of the board for a raw wool duty of 19 cents.23 Columns 5, 6, and 7 are columns 2, 3, and 4 expressed in percentages. Here it is found, as in considering the top duties of these bills, that the duties are much heavier on the low-grade yarns than on the higher. This defect can be corrected by properly grading the specific part of the duties.

Considering all the bills studied, the method of levying the duties on yarns in the Penrose bill is the most desirable from the point of view of protection.

Yarns

The Tariff Board says

are comparatively well standardized and their cost varies in a certain regular relation to the fineness or count of the yarn. It is a simple matter, then, to adopt the specific system in this particular case. A duty can be assessed on No. 1 yarn and be made to increase by a certain proportion with each additional count of yarn.24

23 Ibid., p. 626. 24 Ibid., p. 710.

These suggestions were followed by the framers of the Penrose bill. By referring to Table 9 it will be observed that a rate of 41 or 42 cents per pound on 2/60s is approximately in accord with the findings of the Tariff Board. This rate should be graded up and down, according to the count of the yarn.

An ad valorem rate on yarns is, from a protective point of view, inadvisable, but if it is adopted the rate should be at least 50 per cent on the basis of 35 per cent wool. It was evident from Table 8 that the 45 per cent given by the La Follette bill was scarcely ample to cover the minimum difference in conversion cost.

WOOLEN AND WORSTED FABRICS

When the question of the duty on woolen and worsted fabrics is taken up, a field is entered upon vastly more complicated than that of tops and yarns. In investigating the cost of weaving the Tariff Board chose 55 samples of woolen and worsted fabrics, which included samples of all the standard varieties used for men's and women's wear. The board, in the first place, obtained the actual weaving cost of each fabric from the mill originally making it; in the next place, it submitted the various samples to foreign and domestic manufacturers making similar goods, and obtained from them, after their books had been studied by the board's agents, the cost at which they could make the fabrics. The figures were checked and compared and the record of each sample written up.25 The board contented itself with giving the costs of converting yarn into cloth, and it made no effort to report specifically on the conversion costs of the tops and yarns used in the making of the fabrics. Nor did it attempt to connect its investigation of weaving costs with its costs of combing and spinning. An effort will here be made to do this. In Table 10 the difference in conversion costs between this country and abroad for the samples reported on by the Tariff Board is calculated from the raw wool through combing and spinning to the finished fabrics. Those samples on which no English costs were obtained are not included. In this table the classification of the Hill bill has been adopted, not necessarily because it is the last word on classification, but because it was the one most discussed in the sixty-fifth Congress.

25 Ibid., pp. 651-690.