Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1891 — FREE RAW MATERIALS. [ARTICLE]

FREE RAW MATERIALS.

WHAT FREE HIDES HAVE ACCOMPLISHED. I urge Increase in Exports of Leather and Loots and shoes—English Buyers in the American Market—A Strong Case lor Free Raw Materials. The wisdom of the policy of free raw materials is well illustrated in the case of leather. Hides were pat on the free list nearly twenty years ago, and our exports of leather and leather goods have steadily increased ever since then, reaching during the liscal year ending June 30, 18<J0, the total of §12,438,000. These exports wiH be still larger during the fiscal year now drawing to a close. On the subject of our fore'gu market for leather, the Boston Boot and Shoe Recorder says: “Foreigners have become steady purchasers of shoe-making material from America The future growth of the traffic is certain to be continuous and rapid. There are thosq, in tho leather trade who feel that in another ten years the volume of fore’gu transactions in leather will be double what it is now. They assume, of course, that there will be no absurd legislation to interfere w.th the busine s. The proposition a year or so ago to tax hides startled tho trade somewhat at tho time, but that has gone by and we canuot expect any interference in that quarter for several years to come. We shall expect the same steady increase in years to como that has been going on for the past six or eight years ” “English buyers of leather,” the samo journal goes on, “are now considered to he one of the regular factors of our market, and hardly a day passes that transactions in leather by these people are not recorded. The English leather commission merchant continues to solicit consignments of American leafier, and considerable Amer can leather is now going into this channel. ” The foreign demand for lea'.her is so strong and steady that it is looked to to raise prices As tho Recorder says: “The fact that larger quantities than usual of shoe materials are going out of the country will inevitably strengthen the determination of holders of leather to adhoro to their price, and to advance i's they can. ” Under the influence of cheap leather our boot and shoo indu try has developed, and machinery and methods have been invented which place us far ahead of Europe in capacity for rapid work. Our shoe-making machinery is even now being introduced into Europe. Mr, John T. Day, editor of the London Shoe and Leather Record , has recently been visiting this country. In speaking of his visit, the Boston Boot and Shoe Recorder says: “During his visit to America he has been investigating the methods of boot and shoe manufacturers in this country, and as a result will take home a mass of interesting information relative to it. In comparing English and American styles of work, editor Day states unhesitatingly that we are far ahead of our British cousins in tho use of modern machinery and in the manner of doing the work. ” Such have been tho beneficent results of free trade. But these results have not been reaped by foreigners alone, but in a much larger measure by our own people. Never were our shoes so well made and cheaply sold as to-day. The pasteboard soles and heels, so common just after the war. havo entirely disappeared, free raw material enabling our manufacturers to turn out cheaply shoes made entirely of leather. With the increased exports of leather there has been also a very groat increase in tho imports of raw hides. These imports last year reached nearly $22,000,000. It has certainly been of no disadvantage to our farmers that this large quantity of hides came into the country free. No one grows cattle for hides; and the valuo of the hide, is so small in comparison with the meat that it scarcely enters into calculation. If free hides have proven of so great benefit to the leather industry, giving it a large and stable foreign market, why would not equal benelits follow free wool?