Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1891 — CURRENT COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT COMMENT.

WOOL AND WOOLEN GOODS. Indianapolis Journal. - Free trade papers are now trying, to persuade wool growers in this country that the greater protection of their industry by the McKinley law has not given them the increased prices which they falsely declare the advocates of that law promised them. As a matter of fact, higher prices were not promised, only protection aghinst the very low prices realized by* wool growers generally. A business man of this city has furnished the Journal with a copy of the wool circular of the well known house of Justice, Bateman & Co.. wool com mission merchants in Philadelpnia, dated June 1, which shows the absurdity of the efforts of free trade papers to make American wool growers believe that the duties on wool do not afford them any advantage over others engaged in the industry. The statements made in the circular are those of business men to business men, regardless of political bias. Referring to the fact that the prices of wools are, a little lower than those which prevailed a year ago, the circular says: The price of foreign wool is lower than at this time last year, and, as the wool markets of the world control American markets, prices here are declining in sympathy with prices abroad. As an illustration, Shropshire wools in beautiful condition are being sold by Canadian fanners at 18 to 20 cents, fleece washed, while Ohio wool growers are getting from 28 to 30 cents for the same wool. These wools are all selling in the Eastern markets at 35 to 36 emits.

It may be possible that the Anglomaniac editor will be able to make the farmer who raises wool believe that it is no advantage to him to receive a third more for bis clip than does the Canadian farmer, but the chances are that he will not. Speaking of the causes which make an advance in the price of wools impossible, the circular states: “The cost of clothing is no higher than before the McKinley bill was 'passed, and without any advance in manufactures of wool, higher prides for raw material cannot be perma nently maintained. Some kinds of woollen goods upon which the duties were advanced have declined in Eux’ope so much that the cost to the American consumers is no greater than under the old law, the increased duty coming entirely off of the foreign produced Conspicuous among such articles are some kinds of hosiery, the duties upon which were greatly increased by the McKinley bill, which havd declined so much abroad as to admit of their importation at the increased duties, and still allow of their sale to the American consumers at lower prices than were Current before the tariff was changed.” — ——- - The evasions and abuses practiced in the importation of wools under the loose provisions of the old tariff have been corrected by the McKinley law, while the higher duties have transferred the production of goods from Europe to this country to an extent that has increased the consumption of wool at the rate of five million pounds a month. But for the provisions of the existing law, the firm issuing the circular express the opinion tnat the falling off in the use of wools by American mills would have been ten million pounds a month by this time, instead of being increased five million pounds in that period. The Australian clip has become so large that it is now the factor which determines the prices of wool in the commercial world. Under that influence the woolgrowing industry in America and its effect in cheapening the meat supply of the country would fare very badly but for the protection which the provisions of the McKinley law furnish. The several beneficial effects of the present law are summed up in the closing paragraph of the circular, as follows: “The lower prices that the Canadian farmer now receives for his wool in comparison with the American farmer applies with equal force to wool growing all over the world. The McKinley bill, while not increasing the cost of clothing to the consumer, has transferred industry to American mills at the expense of foreign mills. Although the prices for American wool have not permanently advanced, the foreign markets have declined. Activity prevails in the wool and woolen industry of the United States while depression prevail in the industries abroad.” These statements of men of large experienc in the business of selling wool to men in the same business in the interior are entitled to much more attention than the assumptions of free-trade editors who have no experience whatever except in making assertions regardless of facts.

MR. M’ADOO’B MUCH ADO.

The article of ex-Congressmen McAdoo in the Forum, charging that the recent increase of immigration; is due to the fact that the McKinley law has closed out industries abroad and- transferred them to this country. thus compelling the people who were employed in those industries to iorae to this country to find employment, is beiag exploited by the freetrade p?ess. The results of the MoKinley Jaw are so generally favorable, and it te increasing in popularity in so markqd a degree, that anything which appears like an accusation is eagerly snapped up by the Anglomaniac press and used without examing its soundness. A few minutes’ consideration would satisfy any

fhrMßgent person that there ta mo ground for sueh a charge. The objectionable people who are coming te this country are not the skilled workmen of England, Germany and France, whose employment would bq likely to be affected by the changes in duties made by the present law, but the hordes of people, without trades or skill, coming from Italy, Poland, Austria-Hungary, etc. The latest report of the Bureau of Statistics presents figures which make it easy to refute the McAdoo statements and of all those who have made use of them. The increase of immigration from Russia and Poland during the first ten months of the present fiscal year, chiefly Poland, was 321.5 per cent, oyer the corresponding period of last year, while the imports from that country are of no account. Thq Increase of immigration from Italy 1 during the same period was 49 per cent., while the imports from tnat country to this were only 2.57 per cent, of the whole. The increase of immigration from Austria-Hungary during the same period was 32 per cent., while the imports therefrom were only 1.18 per cent, of the whole. That is, the larger part of the increase of immigration comes from countries which have little trade withi this country, and, consequently, nd manufactures to be transplanted with their employes. Great Britain and lre-. land send to the United States 23.63 per cent, of all our imports, but thq increase of immigration during the ten months ending with April was only 4.3 per cent, for Ireland and Scotland compared with the corresponding period of last year, while the immigration from England and Wales the seats of most of the industries affected, was 4.1 per cent, less during the later period. These facts destroy the colums of the McAdoo turgid and and fervid rhetoric in the Forum, which puts the case as follows: — Our law closes a European shop, and throws out of employment thousands of workmen. They have in many eases to choose between the poor-house and the immigrant ship. Read the fruits of the prohibits ry tariff. Bureau of Statistics reports the total number of immigrants during the periods named as follows: ~~ Month of March..... 35.750 62,17$ Nine months ending Maroh 31. 264.403 310,331 is it possible that a man of Mr. McAdoo’s brightness did not know that he yras juggling with statistics to deceive the people, and is that a medium of correct information which puts forth such statements without comment?

ONE OF THE BRITISH CHAMPIONS.

Chicago Inter-Ocean. The Chicago Times, speaking ol the Inter Ocean’s lately published list of tin plate works in America, says: “There is not a single concern named in the list that has made tin. plate commercially.” And this in the face of the fact that the Apollo works are admitted to be selling tin plate of a better quality than any imported, that the St. Louis stamping company is turning out about 400 boxes a day, and that Norten Bros, are making nearly all the tin-plate required for their canning factory, which is the largest in the world. It is because of such persistent misrepresentations as this that the London Financial Times hails our local contemporary among 1 ‘the strongsided champions in Chicago” of the Welsh tin plate monopoly. It is not a title that an American newspaper should be proud of, but it has been bestowed, in consideration of services rendered, by the chief financial journal of Great Britain upon the anti-tin-plate newspapers of Chicago, of which the Times is one. What are the hopes of the Welsh tin plate monopolists? Said one of thdm, as reported in an Inter Ocean dispatch of yesterdav: “We must wait and see how far the Americans will venture to invest their money in a doubtful industry. Anyhow, they will not be able to conflict with the English producers for some time to come. The framers of the McKinley act introduced pro--visions in the tin plate clause which enable the whole duty to be abolished in October, 1897 * * * The possible alteration in this way of the tariff as now formulated ought nat, urally to have the effect of keeping American capital out of the risky in-, vestment which tin-plate would thus become.” Their chief hope is that American capitalists may be frightened out ol resting money on “a doubtful industry.” The Chicago Times, Tribuna and Herald try to make the industry “doubtful” by predicting a repeal of the duty, by predicting failure of all efforts to make tin plates in America, and by predicting the inability ol Americans to make tin plate of equal quality to the Welsh, if they can make it at all. Certainly patriotic pride ought to lead even a Democratic newspaper to hope that Americans may do as well as Britishers. Bui the Times, the Tribune and the Herald all manifest hatred to those who endeavor to create a new American industry. And this is why the London Financial Times compliments them as “strongsided champions in Chicago oi the Welsh tin plate makers.” But just as the Democratic predecessors of these Chicago champions of a foreign monopoly failed in their predictions of failure of the first American efforts toward steel rail manufacture, so they will fail to retard the Production of American tin plate. here are twenty-eight firms engaged in the business, or preparing to engage in it, already, and the protective duty on tin plate has not yet gone into effect.