17 
shrinking from the cards to the manufactured goods—and there is no doubt but 
they will do more than that—we have, then, as the weekly product of the country, 
(in prosperous times,) two million five hundred thousand pounds of cloth per 
week, or one hundred and seventeen millions of pounds per annum. 
«Again, the weight of the woollen goods imported into the United States 
during the fiscal year 1866, the commissioner, after a careful examination, esti- 
‘mates to have been as follows: 
Woollen goods proper...... TORR Cannes hunter Be CK OU) pommel? 
AEN ees ge. wig) ania = <fa/S biota ss BVO Pakts .eeeees 2,000,000 pounds. 
Dress goods, bunting, and worsted manufactures...... .. 13,500,000 pounds. 
PRED crea) kes = sia @ Se Aaeiere aR LY eke evecaay oicer 33,000,000 pounds. 
“These results, therefore, indicate the present average consumption of manu- 
factured woollens in the United States to be about one hundred and fifty mil- 
~ Jion pounds per annum. 
“Tt must be evident, now, that, to the extent to which the cost of wool is in- 
creased to the American manulacturer, through the increased duties on bis raw 
materials, it will be necessary to impose an equivalent increase of duties on the 
importations of foreign woollens, otherwise the increased price of wool, growing: 
out of the duty, would act as a bounty in favor of the foreign manufacturer, 
and prove speedily disastrous both to the American wool-grower and to the 
American woollen manufacturer. 
“To balance the duties proposed upon wool, the executive committee of the 
woollen manufacturers claim, and endeavor to prove it to be essential to the 
-preservation of their industry, that, for every cent of duty imposed on wool, 
four cents per pound must be charged on all woollens imported. It is also clear, 
that if the price is to be enhanced to the extent of the duty, the advance must 
be estimated alike on goods made of domestic as well as of foreign wool. Con- 
sequently, for every cent of duty imposed on wool, the American consumer will 
be taxed four nts per pound on his manufactured woollens; which tax on the 
present annual consumption of the country, viz: one hundred and fifty million 
pounds, would amount to the sum of six million dollars for each cent of duty | 
imposed on wool. 
“ Assuming the existing rate of duty upon unwashed wool at six cents per 
pound, the present annual tax for the protection of this interest is, therefore, 
($6,000,000 x 6 cents=) $36,000,000; but at the proposed rate, assuming 
eleven and a half cents as the minimum, this tax will be further increased 
($6,500,000 x 5$=) $32,250,000; or, in other words, the proposed tariff on 
wool and woollens will tax the community (if it should have the effect sought 
by those who propose it) to the extent of seventy-one millions two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars per annum for the protection of an interest the whole 
annual value of whose product, as we have already shown, cannot be considered 
in excess of thirty-six millions of dollars gold valuation ”’ 
Now, by the estimate of manufacturers, it requires four pounds of foreign 
wool to make one of cloth, and this estimate isyrecognized above, by assuming 
the duty of one cent upon a pound of wool to be four upon a pound of cloth. 
‘The estimate of 150,000,000 pounds of cloth is therefore equivalent to 
600,000,000 pounds of wool per annum. 
The following errors are included in this statement : 
Error first—While the manufacturers estimate four pounds of foreign wool 
to one pound of cloth, they reckon but two and one-sixteenth pounds of native 
wool to one pound of cloth. As our present wool “clip,” by the estimate of 
the Commissioner, is 100,000,000 pounds, it would make 48,500,000 pounds of 
cloth, and yet he counts it all as foreign wool, of which 194,000,000 pounds 
2A 
