46 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 20 
MORE •• CHEAPNESS OF FREE WOOL.” 
A DUTY ON GREASE AND DIRT. 
I have just been reading the letter of 
Mr. Charles O. Newton of Homer, N. Y., 
under the heading of “The ‘Cheapness’ of 
Free Wool,” on page 808. Mr. Newton 
has made the very common mistake of 
overlooking the difference between the 
duty on wool in the grease and on 
scoured wool. The duty is the same on 
dirt and grease that it is on wool, and 
Mr. Newton has forgotten to reckon in 
the duty on dirt and grease. The duty 
on clothing wool is, as he says, 11 cents. 
From this he infers that the duty on the 
wool in a piece of cloth weighing 53^ 
pounds for 'a winter suit is 603^ cents. 
But it takes three pounds of grease wool 
to make one pound of scoured wool, and 
manufacturers sometimes claim that it 
takes more than a pound of scoured wool 
to make a pound of cloth ; it is natural to 
suppose that there is some waste. Besides 
the ad valorem duty on woolen cloth, im¬ 
posed for the protection of the manufac¬ 
turer, there is a duty per pound of cloth, 
to offset the duty the manufacturer is 
supposed to pay on his wool, which on 
moat woolen fabrics is three, three and 
a half, or four times the duty on grease 
wool of the first class, 11 cents ; that is, 
the duty on the wool in most fabrics is 
33, 383^ or 44 cents a pound, according to 
their fineness. The duty on the wool in 
Mr. Newton’s 53^-pound suit, therefore, 
would be at least $1,813^, and might be, 
$2.42, and this is in addition to the ad va¬ 
lorem duty on the cloth, and is based on 
the assumption that the price of wool is 
increased by the full amount of the duty. 
The protectionists are generally ready 
to deny that the domestic price is en¬ 
hanced by the full amount of the duty. 
Certainly it is not in the case of wool at 
the present time. The tables recently 
reprinted in the pages of the American 
Wool Reporter, show that two or three 
years ago the price of fine Ohio wool was 
practically the price of Australian wool 
in London, plus the duty and the cost of 
bringing the wool from London. Since 
then the price of Australian wool has 
fallen a little, and the price of domestic 
wool has fallen a good deal, and the dif¬ 
ference between the London and Ameri¬ 
can prices was only about one half of the 
duty, on the finer grades; on the lowest 
grades there was little or no difference. 
The manufacturer has, however, an off¬ 
set based on the assumption that he pays 
an additional 11 cents a pound, on account 
of the tariff on wool, on every pound of 
clothing wool in the grease which he 
uses. 
Mr. Newton ought also to notice, that 
coupled with the proposal to remove the 
duty on wool there is a proposal to re¬ 
duce somewhat Ihe ad valorem duty on 
the cloth, so that if prices responded to 
the full amount of the reduction the dif¬ 
ference in a suit of clothes would be 
more than the amount of duty on the wool 
contained therein. e. r. r. 
New York. 
A TARIFF ON POTATOES! 
A FARMER FAVORS IT. 
On page 837 is a letter from James M. 
Dunlap, which says: “Would not the 
proposed reduction on potatoes from 25 
cents to 10 cents per bushel, as proposed 
in the Wilson bill, practically destroy 
profitable potato growing in this coun¬ 
try?” * * * Your reply shows clearly 
the position of the free traders on the 
measure, i e., “that the proposed duty 
was lowered in order to prevent very high 
prices, and that the consumers of pota¬ 
toes, being greatly in excess of the pro¬ 
ducers, a low price will benefit more peo- 
than a high one.” 
Viewing the question as a farmer and 
from a farmer’s standpoint, the above 
explanation does not explain as clearly 
as I would wish, for the following rea¬ 
sons : While high prices do prevail in 
some years, they are counterbalanced by 
the seasons of overproduction to such an 
extent that it is only by the closest econ¬ 
omy and skillful farming that the crop 
is a paying one, on the average. Granted 
that the lowest cost of production has 
nob yet been reached, the present and 
probable future cost is so near the pres¬ 
ent average price that, with the tariff 
removed, and all Europe to compete 
with, most of the potato growers in the 
United States will be forced to seek some 
other employment. Thus thousands of 
new competitors will be afloat in the 
farming or industrial world, crowding 
the already overcrowded workingman 
still farther to the wall. 
Are Tariffs Just ? 
It may be urged that even if the above 
statement be true it is not right or just 
to tax one man to help support another. 
But why not? Do not all persons give up 
certain individual rights, and pay taxes 
when living in a community, for the 
general welfare? Are not all taxes laid to 
benefit the majority? Certainly there are 
many individuals who could complain 
about the injustice of the ordinary State, 
county, road, and school tax. If the 
bachelor or cripple pay yearly a road 
or school tax, it is to promote the gene¬ 
ral welfare, by which he is supposed to 
be indirectly benefited, even though he 
do not use either road or schools. So 
where the tariff is a tax, (which is not al¬ 
ways the case—many protected articles 
selling for less in this country to day 
than in England) why is it not a just and 
wise course to lay such a tax in order to 
promote the general welfare? It seems 
very short-sighted to take each article, 
and say, “The consumers of this are 
greatly in excess of the producers, and 
consequently the tariff should be re¬ 
moved,” for if by so doing we drive the 
producers out of business, they must 
compete with the others, and will add to 
the already too large force of unemployed 
men. We are all consumers and pro¬ 
ducers—excepting a very small number 
(comparatively) of professional men, and 
if by paying a small National tax per 
capita we are enabled to do a thriving 
business, it seems not only right, but 
necessary to our welfare, just as the State 
taxes are necessary. 
The Potato Tax Light. 
In this case, where the consumers are 
so largely in excess of the producers, 
the tax per capita is trifling, and yet 
means a great deal to the farmer, for 
by its removal he will be driven into 
new employment, and have less money 
to spend on manufactured goods—thus 
causing directly many workmen to be 
thrown out of employment. A lower 
price to the consumer does not always 
mean prosperity; it may where evei y one 
has a fixed income, but where men make 
their bread, higher prices mean higher 
wages—and just here is the keystone of 
the reason why so many of America’s 
workmen have their own homes (as in 
Philadelphia). 
Ihe purchasing power of money increases 
in a qeometrical ratio as ihe amount in¬ 
creases. For instance, if a workman 
lack, say a dollar, of the amount needed 
to buy a ton of coal he has to buy at 
bucket rates, making him pay for about 
three tons by the time he has used one, 
whereas if he had had the extra dollar 
he would have saved the price of two 
tons. This again applied in the same 
way, goes on piling up his comforts. A 
reduction in price of the coal per ton (by 
removing the tariff) does not help him, 
for his wages are also reduced, and the 
same ratio preserved. Statistics seem to 
show that that locality is most prosper¬ 
ous which has the most sound money in 
circulation. In the mountainous regions 
of the South, cash is almost unknown. 
Wages are nominally 50 cents per day, a 
large turkey 50 cents, chickens 8 and 10 
cents, while wretched calicoes are 10 and 
12 cents per yard—which could not be 
sold here for five ; almost all business 
is done by barter. When a hotel or other 
enterprise is begun, what a difference is 
there ! 
The difference in the prosperity of the 
natives cannot well be understood unless 
it be seen. Prices of labor and food go 
up, yet the general welfare is vastly bet¬ 
ter than when they were low, and no 
one had any money to spend ! In truth, 
it is but a miniature object lesson of what 
will happen to us if theitariff be removed; 
prices will go down, but what will that 
avail us, if we have no work or wages? 
If to-day, with only ourselves to compete 
with, hundreds of thousands of workmen 
are starving for want of work, what will 
become of us if we must be thrown into 
competition with Europe as well, where 
the distress is far greater than here, bad 
though it may be. 
GEORGE RHYFEDD FOULKE. 
West Chester, Pa. 
A Cold Seems a Small affair. - Most people 
neglect It. Who minds it? Yet a Cold may turn to 
Consumption, and then follows almost certain death. 
—Better take a cold In time by using Dr. D. Jayne’s 
Expectorant, the well-known standard remedy for 
Coughs, Colds, Consumption, Asthma, Bronchitis 
and ail Pulmonary Complaints, and your Cold will 
disappear, as well as all apprehension of danger.— 
Adv. 
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