WOOL-Cost of Producing -Continued. "It would be impossible for us to continue the business under free wool; we would have to quit breeding and dispose of our sheep for mutton as they become of suitable age. "When the industry is destroyed in the United States, I apprehend, the foreigner will raise the price of wool probably to more than we have received under protection; but we will have no sheep, and it takes a long time to stock up a range, as sheep do not increase very rapidly." No. 398. WOOL-Extent of Destruction. Do our Democratic friends know the magnitude of the woolgrowing industry which they have destroyed? There were 700,000 wool growers in the United States-700,000 people whose principal industry was that of growing wool. There were probably 150,000 more who were owners of small flocks of sheep in the United States. This industry employed, besides the owners of flocks, at least half a million laborers, representing, with those who were dependent upon them, 2,500,000 people dependent upon the wages paid to laborers in this industry. There were 700,000 farms, averaging 160 acres each, devoted to the industry; and the mountainous regions in the great West and the vast plains of the great West, which are not suitable for other kinds of agriculture, which are not suitable for cultivation, have been utilized in this great industry and made valuable. These 700,000 farms, of 160 acres each, comprising 112,000,000 acres of land, are made valueless by placing wool on the free list and destroying this great industry. A statement from Hon. W. W. Baker, editor of the North Pacific Rural Spirit, shows that in Oregon, Utah, Washington, Idaho, and Western Montana there were 6,710,746 sheep, which were worth in 1892, prior to the Presidential election, $13,421,492, and which are worth in 1896 no more than $6,710,746, showing a falling off in the value caused by putting wool on the free list. No. 399. WOOL-Fall of Foreign Prices. Free-traders have been fond of drawing comparisons between the lower price of American wool under the McKinley law and prices current previous to 1860. It is true that previous to 1860 the clean scoured value of Ohio XX was 80 cents, and its clean scoured value under the McKinley law before it was menaced with repeal in the early part of 1893 was 70 cents-a decline of 121⁄2 per cent. This fact has been given great prominence, but the advocates of this WOOL-Fall, etc.—Continued. view have been ominously silent as to the 46 per cent. decline in London in wool of the same kind and quality during the same period. For some years previous to 1860 the London value of Australian clean scoured wool similar to XX Ohio was 65 cents, but in 1893 its value was only 35 cents-a decline in the free-trade markets of the world of over 46 per cent., as against a decline under protection in the United States for wool of the same quality and condition of only 122 per cent. Further evidence of this fact, but exhibiting a still greater decline in foreign markets, is shown in the publication of a table by Messrs. George Wm. Bond & Co., of Boston, giving all kinds of colonial wools imported into England and America in 1860 and in 1893, showing a falling off in value in that period of over 51 per cent. The importation of colonial wools into Europe and America at various tariff periods between 1860 and 1893, with approximate value per bale, in English money, was as follows: To-day we have 38,000,000 of sheep in the United States, 26,000,000 of which and nearly 70 per cent. of all are located west of the Mississippi River. The freight on the wool from these sheep from the ranch to the Eastern markets varies from 2 to 3 cents per pound, while the freight on wool from London is only one-fourth of a cent per pound. How can the American wool grower pay from 800 to 1,200 per cent. more freight than his foreign competitor, when the freight alone under such unequal competition would of itself bar the American wool grower from his own market? Thus, with the removal of protection, the difference in freight alone is against the American wool grower, so that he is compelled to go out of the business. WOOL AND WOOLEN GOODS-Imports-Increase in 10 WOOLEN INDUSTRY vs, WHISKY TRUST-Democrats Census Bulletin No. 380 calls attention to the fact that 440 establishments engaged in the manufacture of distilled spirits, with a capital of $31,006,176, and turning out a product of 104,197,869 gallons, employ but 5,343 persons, at wages of $2,814,889; while 1,454 establishments are engaged in the woolen and worsted manufactures, with a capital of $199,075,056, turn out a product of $212,772,629, employ 122,944 persons, at wages of $132,977,104. The woolen business has seven times the capital, twenty-five times the laborers, and pays fifty times the wages. But the Wilson bill reduced the tariff on the woolen schedule three-fifths, which has caused a reduction of wages and a closing up of factories, and has increased the tax on spirits for the benefit of the whisky trust. Verily, great is Democratic love for the "honest toilers." INDEX. The Figures in First Column Indicate the Number of the Abandoned-Bryan and the Chicago platform. Advance-Civilization and money material. Agricultural implements exported. Agricultural schedule-Import duties. Agriculture-Benefits of Agriculture-Canada's tariff on. Appropriations for fiscal year 1896-'97-Table of. 13 Appropriations for pensions in 1896. Bank failures-Currency loss by.. Banks, national-Comptroller's report May, 1896. Bimetallism-Effort to secure. Bimetallism-Republican issue Bimetallism vs. Monometallism in England. Bismarck on American protection.... Blaine on British and American progress. Bland bill and gold clause. Bolivia Bond bill in 54th Congress. Bonded debt increased in 1894-'95. Bond sale-1894-'95 Bonds issued in 1894 and 1895. 258 229 230 231 24 24 24 131 26 179 29 26 28 26 29 30 31 31 73 32 33 33 38 98 38 37 38 38 39 28 "Buy where you can buy cheapest" not best economy. Breadstuffs exported, 1885-'95. Brussels conference-Instructions of U. S. delegates to. Bryan on free coinage and panic. Bryan's corporation work... Buckwheat-Price of, 1870-'95... Building and loan associations and silver. Bullion-Base. Bullion Silver, notes redeemed by. Bullion-Standard value of.. Business failures in six months. Canada-Competition in freights. Canadian tariff.. Cannon, J. G.-On revenue. Cannon, J. G.-Statement of appropriations by. |