Exhibition Addresses. 163 



Our wool industry being depressed by over-production, its restoration 

 to the normal relations of demand and supply can alone bring relief. 

 In some classes of the wool manufacture, where the excess has been 

 less marked, this desirable change has already come, and these branches 

 are again reasonably prosperous. Unless some hastj' and disastrous 

 -alteration is made in our tariff laws, time and progress can not fail 

 to bring the same relief to all. The existing law has done good ser- 

 vice in protecting the American producer against excessive and ruin- 

 ous importations, at a time when the danger of such importation 

 was great ; and there is good reason to believe that it is well adapted 

 to insure the continued development and the enduring prosperity of 

 American industry. At the least, let us give it a fair trial. The 

 unusual condition of the woolen interest and of the national currency 

 have interfered with its legitimate working, and make it somewhat 

 difficult to estimate its eligibility as a permanent policy. Not until 

 the business and the monetary interests of the country rest once 

 more upon a natural basis, shall we be fully prepared to decide the 

 point. The consumer, certainly, has some reason to be satisfied with 

 its results ; for the prices of many woolen goods (reckoned in gold) 

 are actually less than they were before the war. 



It was, as you are aware, at a conference of leading manufacturers 

 and growers of wool from all parts of the United States, and after 

 full consideration and discussion, that the pri-nciple which underlies 

 our present tariif on wools and woolens was unanimously adopted. 

 It is, in fact, only a clearer and stronger expression of the idea on 

 which the (so-called) " Morrill Tariff" of 1861 was partly based. It 

 aims to give equal p]-otection to him who raises and him who works 

 up the raw material. It tends directly to reconcile great interests, 

 which had been falsely regarded as antagonistic. And, best of all, 

 "by substituting united endeavor for hostile action, and a system well 

 .-considered for capricious ignorance, it gives a ground of stability, and 

 a reason to hope for it, M^hich our tariff legislation has long and 

 greatly needed. While it protects the wool-grower, it simply places 

 the manufacturer where he would be were his raw material free. 

 The duties on wool are practically neutralized by a specific duty on 

 woolens, which, for purposes of revenue and protection, are also 

 taxed with an ad vc/lore?n rate. Another and very important feature 

 of the present tariff is its new, simple, and entirely practical 

 classification of wools. 



lOur wool manufacturers have been subjected to much severe and 



