106 [Sewats 



It appears from the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, that 

 for the S years preceding 1843, there were imported into the country 

 on an average, annually, upwards of nine millions pounds of wool. 

 In 1841, it amounted to 12,391,035 pounds, and in 1842 to 10,910,- 

 382 pounds. The Hon. Wm. Slade, late a member of Congress from 

 Vermont, has ascertained that for the first half of the fiscal year of 

 1843, during which time the late tariff has been in operation, it 

 amounted to only 1,037,530 lbs., being a falling off on the average 

 imports of the last eight years of 77 per cent, and as contrasted 

 with 1S41-2, of more than 82 per cent. Mr. Slade does not attribute 

 this reduction solely to the operation of the tariff, though that was 

 mainly instrumental, particularly the coarse wool provision. The tariff 

 of 1832 admitted wool of the value of 8 cents and under, free of duty. 

 It is curious that nearly all the wool imported was of this descrip- 

 tion. Taking the period above alluded to of eight years, from 1835 

 to 1842, and about 71,000,000 out of the 75,000,000 lbs. imported, 

 was the minimum priced wool, though by no means always coarse. 

 The condition and depressed state of the foreign market, the bad 

 manner in which the wool was prepared and put up, reduced the price 

 whence imported to eight cents, and then it came free of duty ; and 

 this wool it was that came in competition with our own and kept it 

 down. Under the late tariff, wool must now, at the place whence 

 imported, be of the value of 7 cents or under, and also be coarse^ 

 before it can come in under the small duty of 5 per cent. ; none 

 now comes in free, but if the wool is not coarse, though below the 

 value of 7 cents, it has to pay a duty of three cents a pound, and 30 

 per cent ad valorem, making a duty of some 5 or 6 cents a pound on 

 all such wool. 



There is another very important point in reference to this foreign 

 wool to be borne in mind. It is said to lose as much as some seventy- 

 five per cent in cleansing, as opposed to some thirty-three per cent 

 average loss on American wool. Thus, suppose one dollar buys, at 

 twelve and a half cents per pound, eight pounds of foreign wool, 

 which, including freight, insurance, commissions and profits, we 

 will suppose to be its cost to the manufacturer — that one dollar buys, 

 at thirty-three cents a pound, three pounds of American coarse wool ; 

 when cleansed ready for carding, there will be an equal quantity, 

 two pounds of eacTi — or for the wool clear of the dirt, the cost is fifty 

 cents in either case. If this is so, thirty-three cents, it would seem, 

 is likely to be the minimum price of our coarse wool, unless reduced 

 by home competition, if it ever is. Judging from the great falling 

 off in the importations immediately after the late tariff went into 

 operation, and as the small duty of five per cent on the minimum 

 priced wool is unequal to account for it, it is fair to suppose that this 

 coarse wool provision has shut out millions of pounds that otherwise 

 would have been brought into competition with our own common 

 wool. The farmers and wool growers are exceedingly interested that 

 this provision of the tariff law should be thoroughly, honestly and 

 efficiently executed. They have a right to expect good faith and 

 fidelity on the part of the manufacturers, independent of the action 



