110 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Mr. SPRINGER. But it is within the taxing power. In the manu- 

 facture of woolen goods during the census year 1890 the shoddy, cot- 

 ton, and other adulterants used exceeded the amount of pure wool, 

 the ratio used being 45 parts of pure wool and 55 parts of shoddy, 

 cotton, and other adulterants, not including camel's hair and mohair. 

 Yet, notwithstanding this fact, there has been no effort made in this 

 country or in any other, so far as I am advised, to place a special tax 

 upon woolen goods manufactured in part of shoddy, cotton, and other 

 adulterants for the purpose of protecting the sheep industry from a 

 ruinous competition with cheap substitutes for wool. The adulterants, 

 when woven into woolen cloths, look so like pure woolen goods that 

 only an expert can distinguish the pure article from the imitations, 

 and it is well known that most of the adulterated fabrics are sold to 

 consumers as ' ; all wool and a yard wide. " Pass the pending bill and 

 the sheep raisers will come forward and demand a tax that will protect 

 wool from ruinous competition with shodd} r and other adulterated 

 goods. 



There is no place where this will end. It does seem to me that if 

 our woolen goods are so adulterated, by putting shoddy and cotton 

 into them, that the ratio of pure wool to adulterants is as that of 45 to 

 55, Congress might be called upon, in the exercise of its taxing power, 

 to place a duty upon the home-manufactured goods that are not com- 

 posed of pure wool exclusively. That would protect the growers of 

 pure wool the sheep raisers from competition with shoddy. I do 

 not know whether the gentlemen of the committee understand what 

 shoddy is. Old woolen clbthes are put into some kind of a machine, 

 ground up, and then spun and put into a yarn, which is woven into 

 new cloths. The nap is not more than a sixteenth of an inch long, but 

 it is wool all the same, and when mixed with long nap of natural wool 

 it forms a product which deceives experts themselves. 



The sheep men have just as much right to come before this commit- 

 tee and ask that woolen goods which do not consist entirely of that 

 article shall be taxed so much a pound 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Have any of the States passed laws against 

 shoddy ? 



Mr. SPRINGER. No, sir; not that I know of. I never heard of it. It 

 is conceded that shoddy is a legitimate article of commerce, and that 

 its manufacture has proved a great benefaction to mankind. 



Mr. GROUT. I suppose the shoddy betrays its character largely to 

 the feeling? 



Mr. SPRINGER. When there is as little as 20 per cent you can not 

 tell it from the original long wool. It does not last so long; it is not 

 so good; but it is used all the same, and as I have indicated by these 

 statistics, it is being used more from year to year. The object of 

 calling attention to these things is to show that you are now enter- 

 ing upon the matter of interfering between two home producers of 

 articles necessary for our consumption, and endeavoring by the taxing 

 power of the Government to build up one industry and destroy another. 

 In this case it is the building up of one b} r the total destruction of the 

 other. In the other case there might be laws which would allow both 

 of them to exist, but this does not allow the manufacture of oleomarga- 

 rine in the semblance of butter to exist at all as a manufacture in 

 this country. 



