WOOL INDUSTRY. 



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The point which we make is, not tliat the English and Belgians 

 do not obtain their cloths more cheaply than we do, but that it is 

 more economical for us to consume our own products than to de- 

 pend upon the English and Belgians. The question of economy 

 involves the wearing qualities of our cloths, the facilities for pay- 

 ing for them by domestic exchange, — as with wool by the farmer, 

 with labor by the mill operative, with market produce by the 

 gardener, or other facilities which attend home consumption. 

 One of these facilities deserves attention, as it is the very climax 

 of our wool industry. We refer to our ready-made clothing man- 

 ufacture. Nowhere has this manufacture attained such perfection 

 and economies as in this country. It is founded upon our wool 

 manufacture ; for seven-eighths of its raw material is furnished by 

 our mills. So important is this industry, that it employs directly 

 in Massachusetts alone 28,935 persons. Upon so vast a scale is 

 it conducted that one establishment in Philadelphia, John Wanna- 

 makcr's, covers two and a half acres, and one floor contains two 

 million dollars's worth of goods. This manufacture clothes all 

 the boys and the great bulk of our male population. It is de- 

 clared by experts in this industry that " the wholesale manufac- 

 ture has reduced the cost of clothing to the masses one-half 

 certainly, and, making allowance for the difference in the value of 

 money, even more." That system of production and consumption 

 proves itself to be most economical to the people which makes 

 consumption the most abundant. That our people are the most 

 abundantly and substantially clothed of any in the world needs no 

 demonstration. It is shown in our army and the vast superiority 

 of its cloths over those furnished to any foreign troops. It is 

 shown in what foreigners at Philadelphia so much admired, — the 

 beauty of the uniforms of our volunteer troops. It was shown in 

 the costumes of the millions at the Exposition ; and, especially, 

 in the absence of all distinction of garb in the people of the sea- 

 board cities and the remotest interior. The personal appearance of 

 a population indicates its social condition. And thus the woollen 

 industry performs its last part in the national economy by abolish- 

 ing the outward distinctions of class, and cultivating the personal 

 self-respect of the individual citizen. 



A question of public economy like that which we have discussed 

 addresses itself directly and imperatively to those who control 

 and influence national legislation. We have failed in our purpose, 

 if they do not apply the lesson which these facts teach. 



