Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1891 — Protection Defeat ng Itself: [ARTICLE]

Protection Defeat ng Itself:

The greatest advantage which European manufacturers of woolen goods have over our manufacturers is to be found in their cheap raw materials. It Is a serious fact that, while our tariff on wool is intended to equalize things, it has just the contrary eflect, since it throws a large part of the world’s wool Into the European market, and enables the competing manufacturers of Europe to buy it at a much lower price than they would have to pay if our manufacturers were free to bid against them How this works may be seen from a report of the recent wool sales in London. in the following words: “The great bulk of the East India wools are sold at auction in the Liverpool market. We have bought on the average, at each of these sa'es, from 4,000 to 4,500 bales. When the question of applying the sorting clause to carpet woo s began to be agitated in the spring, Importers were afraid to buy these wcols at the May sales to any extent, becau e they are all sorted to a greater or less degree. Consequently but 900 ta es were taken for America. English buyers being thus relieved of one of their greatest competitors, at once refused to pay the old pr cos, and valu s declined. At the July sales we took even a smaller amount, only 2€o bales being bought Values have in consequence further declined; and English manufacturers are now securing these wools at a lower price than they have paid for yearh. India wools are peculiar, and the purposes for which they are used cannot be supplied, by any other grada "