1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARJVIER. 



123 



■WOOL-GKOWERS IN DANGER. 



The Wool-growers' Association of the State 

 of New York is to hold its annual meeting at 

 Syracuse, January 27. It appears to us that 

 there are good reasons why every Wool-grow- 

 ers' Association in the land should meet and 

 consult upon the woollen interests of the 

 country. Indeed, we regard the questions of 

 fine wool and coarse wools, of the winter or 

 summer management of flocks as altogether 

 secondary to those pertaining to the present 

 duties on wool, to the proposed reciprocity 

 treaty, &c. We fear that wool-growers are 

 settling down into inaction with the belief that 

 the wool business, having been long depressed, 

 is now gradually to become more prosperous 

 and profitable, and that farmers have only to 

 wait patiently for the good time coming. 

 This they might do safely, were other classes 

 of our fellow citizens, who imagine that their 

 interests are opposed to ours, contented to 

 adopt a similar course of inactivity. The 

 late movement in relation to the re-establish- 

 ment of the reciprocity treaty, the tone of the 

 city press, which represents the interests of the 

 commercial, manufacturing and consuming 

 classes, and the recommendations of the late 

 report of Hon. David A. Wells, special reve- 

 nue commissioner, excite our fears as to the 

 safety of the "let alone" policy which farmers 

 have so long been contented to pursue. We 

 believe that Wool-growers' Associations have 

 been, as Dr. Randall says, a power in the land, 

 and that Congress has deferred to them on the 

 important legislative questions pertaining to 

 wool protection. We believe, also, that if 

 wool-growers would keep these matters as 

 they are, the work of these associations is by 

 no means done, — that in fact there has been 

 no period in the history of the woollen inter- 

 est of the country when associated action was 

 more needed than now. 



We have been lead to these remarks by the 

 perusal of an ably written article on the gen- 

 eral subject of the tariff in the January number 

 of the North American Review, a publication 

 designed for the few, rather than the many ; for 

 the leaders, rather than for the multitude ; for 

 the governors, rather than for the governed. 

 It is printed four times a year, at six dollars 

 per annum, and probably finds its way to but 

 few farm houses. It is, however, read by 

 congressmen, lawyers, &c., and through these 



men it has much influence on public opinion, 

 and especially on the legislation of the coun- 

 try. We copy that portion of the article 

 which relates to wool, and ask for it a careful 

 reading by every wool-grower : — 



To pass now to wool. In 1864 we sent out fleets 

 of vessels to Africa, Australia, and the La Plata 

 for wool, and imported eighty-eight millions of 

 pounds, which was made into cloth. Our duties 

 were then but three cents a pound on wool costing 

 less than twelve cents, and but six cents a pound 

 on wool costing from twelve to twenty-four cents. 

 Since the war, although the apparent necessity has 

 ceased, the wool-growers and manufacturers have 

 combined to raise the tax both on wool and wool- 

 lens, and the duty on all hut the very coarsest 

 wool for carpets has been advanced to an average 

 of fourteen cents a pound. This duty is imposed 

 on an article which cost on the average but seven- 

 teen cents when the advance was made, and which 

 declined to fourteen cents during the last autumn. 



Why should we pay a hundred per cent on wool, 

 if we wish to compete in manufactures with other 

 nations ? If on the plains of La Plata or on the 

 savannas of Africa the Merino can he pastured 

 through the year, and the fine Mestiza wool sold 

 for fourteen cents a pound, why should we tempt 

 our farmers to leave dairies for sheep, and to set 

 aside the cheese-press and the churn, when cheese 

 commands seventeen cents and butter half a dollar 

 a pound in our markets ? If the Ohio or Vermont 

 farmers cannot afford their wool for less than five 

 times the price of that of the valley of the La 

 Plata, let them not drive the rancheros into the 

 dairy or beef packing business, which gives such 

 liberal returns. Do our "Western farms, which 

 government sells for a dollar and a quarter per 

 acre, or gives outright to the actual settler, require 

 protection, when France, England, and Belgium, 

 with pastures worth four hundred dollars the acre, 

 and with seventy millions of sheep in their pos- 

 session, admit wool free of duty, and are farther 

 advanced in the n^anufacture of cloth ? 



Two years since, we advanced our duties on 

 wool and woollens. We did it upon the delusive 

 theory, that fine wool ought to cost over thirty-two 

 cents a pound, and pay a specific coupled with an 

 ad valorem duty. Then we assumed that woollens 

 should pay a duty of fifty cents a pound for every 

 pound of wool, jute, or cotton they contained, in 

 addition to a heavy ad valorem duty. Meanwhile 

 our trade with La Plata, Southern Africa and Aus- 

 tralia is broken up. Our importation of wool falls 

 from eighty-eight millions of pounds in 1864 to 

 twenty-three millions in 1868, — a decline almost 

 unprecedented in the annals of commerce. Our 

 ships are thrown out of employment ; for the re- 

 turn freight of wool gave them two-thirds of their 

 profits, — and the foreigner cannot buy the outward 

 cargo, unless we take his wool in payment. Our 

 factories lose their supplies. The merchant loses 

 the export of flour, furniture, fish, petroleum, 

 coarse cottons, and wooden-ware to the Cape and 

 La Plata; and the wool, diverted from our facto- 

 ries, passes oh to the factories of England, France, 

 and Belgium, and is there converted into cloth. 

 Nor is this the end of the evil. The cloth comes 

 over to Halifax, St. John, and Montreal, seeks the 

 frontier, and, with little respect for our duties of 

 eighty or a hundred per cent, finds its way into 

 our territory; and tours of pleasure are made 

 across the border to replenish wardrobes. 



The whole measure from beginning to end has 

 been a mistake, and our woollen trade is depressed, 

 England, France, and Belgium have long since 

 abandoned the idea of a duty on wool, and have 

 thus made their manufactures successful, while 



