Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1886 — Effect of Taxing Carpet Wool. [ARTICLE]

Effect of Taxing Carpet Wool.

With all the encouragement that is given by protective taxation, which makes every yard of qprpeting sold in the United Staten cost a great deal more than it otherwise would, and yet benefits neither the woolgrower nor the manufacturer, nlmost no carpet wools are raised in this country, and, except in Russia, but a small quantity is produced in Europe. Our manufacturers are obliged to buy wool for carpets abroad, or else close their mills. Hence we read that two weeks ago one or two Philadelphia carpet mills placed orders in foreign markets for upwards of 60(1,000 pounds of wool. When this wool reaches the port of Philadelphia, one-quarter, as near as may be, will be added to its cost by the tariff in the name of “protection,” and yet it is not procurable in this country, and none but the ignorant pretend that any amount of encouragement by taxation will cause carpet wools to be grown in this country. This is. a sample of tho burdens imposed by our tariff upon manufacturers aud consumers, placing them at a disadvantage with manufacturers and consumers of other countries, aud benefiting no other class, against which the 40,0(10 workers in the textile industries of Philadelphia protest, and demand, in the interest of labor, a reform. Adding one-quarter to the cost of carpet wools, dirt and all, as soon ns they reach our shores, is at last seen to be a serious injury to both the workers in the factories and the purchasers of carpets, and but for the wide prevalence of the economical superstition, that prosperity can be increased by taxation, it would have been seen long ago. It is, indeed, nothing but a superstition that the mass of the people who earn a living by brain and muscle labor can be benefited by having their earnings transferred to the pockets of a privileged few by taxation. The assumption that a high tariff is essential to prosperity is tantamount to the statement that high taxes are a blessing and not a burden, —Jackson (Mich.) Patriot.