Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1895 — Democratic Tariff Claims Disproved. [ARTICLE]

Democratic Tariff Claims Disproved.

The recent figures which the Treasury Department has made public as to operations of the new tariff demonstrate the fact that the free traders were wrong in their claim as to the effect of the free wool provision of the new law. Theprice of wool has decreased rather than increased, shoddy is replacing wool and clothing is becoming poorer in quality. It was the claim of the free traders that if wool was put on the free list it would increase in value because of the greater demand that would be created for American wools to mix with those of foreign products. That was a mis-statement plain to any fair minded person. The free traders did not expect wool to increase in value, because, if they did woolen clothes would be dearer, instead of cheaper. The new tariff law has been in effect long enough to test the truth of those free trade assertions about wool. It largely decreased in price soon after the Cleveland administration came into power, because it was then clear that wool would be put on the free list. But it has kept right on going down, notwithstanding the low price reached before the tariff bill became a law. Ohio fleece X and XX, according to the figures of the treasury bureau statistics, sold for 25 cents a pound in the first week of May of last year. They are now selling for 16 cents and eyen less a pound. When the new tariff act was passed the price was 21 cents showing a decline of 5 cents a pound in eight month under the new tariff law.

Another thing in connection with the wool tariff will be kept from publicity as much as possible by the men who passed the existing law on the subject. The cry was sent up all over the country that the putting of wool on the free list would give the people better clothing and would stop the use of ‘‘shoddy.” The treasury statistics give an intereting lesson on that subject. Under the McKinley act only 1,504 pounds of shoddy and waste were imported in March of last year. In the same month this year 2,118,669 pounds were imported, showing a gain of 1,407.69 per cent. In the importations of shoddy and waste under the new law, for the nine months ending March 31, in 1894, the importations were 95,923 pounds, while for the eight mouths ending at the same time under the new law the importations were 8,713,187 pounds. The new law is keeping out shoddy by increasing its importation 1,407.69 per cent. Such importations of shoddy were never before known in the history of the country.