304 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



value of slaves was all the more burdensome because of fluctuations in cotton prices, 

 for it was the value of cotton which determined the value of slave labor. 



"In the great system of southern industry and commerce, working with seeming 

 smoothness, the negro laborers were inefficient in spite of discipline, and slavery 

 was an obstacle to all progress. . . . The capitalization of labor and the export of 

 earnings in exchange for more workmen, always of a low degree of efficiency, 

 together with the extreme lack of versatility, deprived the South of the natural 

 advantage which the cotton monopoly should have given. To be rid of the capital- 

 ization of labor as a part of the slaveholding system was a great requisite for the 

 material progress of the South." 



Woolgrowing- and the tariff since 1890, C. W. Weight (Quart. Jour. Econ., 

 19 (1905), Xo. 4, pp. 610-647). — This article is a discussion of the competitors of the 

 woolgrowers of the United States, and the effectiveness of protective tariff in sus- 

 taining the woolgrowing industry in the United States. 



The principal competitors from the outside are Australasia and Argentina. The 

 principal facts to be kept in mind regarding the tariff history of the last 15 years are 

 the Wilson Bill of August 1, 1894, which put wool and woolens on the free list, and 

 the Dingley Bill of July 24, 1897, which restored the duty on wool and woolens. 

 The price of wool produced in the United States is much higher than it would be 

 without protection, yet this difference lacks about 2 cents on the pound of being, 

 equal in amount to the tariff. This is due to the difference between the quality of 

 imported wool and that purchased at home. 



But imported w T ool is by no means the only competitive element affecting the wool 

 industry of the United States. The sheep industry must compete with the cattle 

 industry in the grazing districts, with the dairy industry in the East, and with the 

 production of wheat, corn, and hogs in the Central States. In the Rocky Mountain 

 States the sheep industry continued to expand during the period of free trade in 

 wool, bilt increased very much more rapidly after the duty on wool was restored by 

 the Dingley Bill of 1897. 



In the Central and Eastern States wool production declined rapidly after the 

 removal of the duty on wool and even failed to respond to the Dingley Bill. Other 

 products proved more profitable than wool. Where the dairy industry or grain pro- 

 duction did not drive out the sheep industry east of the 100th meridian, mutton pro- 

 duction took the place of wool production as the chief aim in sheep husbandry. 



" General agricultural conditions have. been the determining factors in the course 

 actually taken by this industry. The tariff, though not vain, has failed of the end 

 desired. Inadequate for the task imposed, it was defeated by superior powers. 



"For the future, the tendencies point to a decline in sheep-raising as an independ- 

 ent industry mainly for wool. Mutton will increasingly dominate the situation, and 

 w T ool become secondary. In the East, where sheep promise to be incidental to gen- 

 eral farming, and wool incidental to mutton, the basis of the industry will be such 

 that the tariff can be of but comparatively slight importance. In the West, which 

 offers sheep-raising far better prospects and a more independent basis, protection can 

 do much more for the woolgrower. Here the competition of the foreign grower is 

 likely to become a more serious factor. . . . 



"In the United States the conditions are such as to render a further advance in 

 woolgrowing highly improbable and a gradual decline likely. The power to pre- 

 vent this, as experience shows, is not to be found in the present tariff." If the wool- 

 grower is to prosper "he must have a duty that will not only enable him to compete 

 with foreign wool, but one that will make his industry at least as profitable as any 

 other that might be carried on in its place — only thus can his flocks be maintained. 

 Yet even then there remain the many forms of competition which operate upon the 

 market for wool so as to lessen the demand. Here the power of the tariff ends. 

 Against these, duties are of slight avail; and whether the industry would thrive in 

 spite of this only experience could tell." 



