Show WOOL WOOL WOOL i Another Installment of Tariff Talk IN WHICH PROTECTIONISTS Are Shown Some of the Fallacies on Which They Argue An Open I Challenge I I BY J H PAUL Will the reader please glance at the last and final argument of the sbeep men given below Not that there is anything very new or striking about I the argument but that it is presented by them as an ulirnatum something on which they finally agree to rest their caseis why I call special attention tot to-t Here it is in the quaint style of the irascible Dane from Sanpete the great selfappointed spokesman of the protectioners Take the wool industry in-dustry alone and destroy it and put the wheat on the market that the sheep men consume directly and indirectly in-directly and wheat will at once drop to export prices which today would be 50 cents per bushel as against 75 cents per bushelthe Salt Lake price Here is an argument for you I twill t-will drop onethird in value under free wool because mark the reason the sheep men consume wheat that is they eat bread And because sheep men eat bread the wool tariff must be maintained It seems a pity that the sheep also dont eat bread so tnat their owners might urge two reasons in favor of the tariff This mere and sheer consumption of victuals is their final fortress whence they shout defiance to toe nation of taxpayers This is the rock on which they rest their hopes the argument on which they submit their case I No one proposes either to takeor to destroy the wool industry and certainly no one would do both these things It is a little singular by the way that the owners of one and a third million sheep in Utah exercise this remarkable re-markable influence over the wheat market Huge feeders as it were He goes on to maintain that this industry indus-try furnishes our young men with heaven save them employment The part of my paper maintaining that sheepherding is not a noble occupation occupa-tion he calls dastardly and brazen but does not say ny statement Is untrue tor even with his mendacity he dares not I also dispute the assumption implied in his alleged argument that sheep men will not eat bread after the tariff has been removed and when we add that in the great wheat markets of St Louis and elsewhere what is now April quoted at 80 cents and that the prices now offered for wheat to be delivered de-livered from May to December of thf present year range from 77 cents to 81 cents it will be seen how much argument argu-ment there is in this last loud bray from Sanpete Then follows an argument in which Mr Thompson attempts to prove that Utah wool Will bring only 1 cent per pound if the tariff is removed and he I saves even this solitary cent only by changing the freight and commission I charges from 5 cents his first figures to 4 cents Had be followed out his own argument he would have proved 1 that the price of Utah wool under free trade would bo nothing per pound I hear that wool Is often sold for less than 15 cents which means according to Mr Thompsons reasoning that under free wool the Utah grower will have to offer along with each pound of wool he must then give for nothing also several cents on each pound to get the manu facturer to accept it lie reduces his own argument to this absurdity thus proving over his own signature what kind ot animal he is related to He next charges me with owning c calf I do not in the stock line own even a calf but I have heard of one He is a sheep owner and the question naturally arises has he not an ax to grind No insinuation is too mean or trivial for his malicious pen but his ibiiity to injure me falls so far short of his Venomous desire to do so that I prod him again and await with entire unconcern another awkward tirade o abuse from this abandoned sheep herder who to modify the compliment he paid me writes too much with his brothers pen He quotes a little sound sense from THE HKEAUX which he fancies a rusher It is this Henry George r says The cuty on every imported im-ported article raises the price of that article to the full extent of that duty paid and also raises the price of the homemade article to the same extent ex-tent It Immediately afterward he proves that the wool on which the tariff is paid is a different kind from American Ameri-can wool and right thfra is the solution solu-tion of the question We are attempting attempt-ing to protect our wool from a kind that does not compete with it Ve raise the nric i of the foreign highgruda wool but this does not raise the price of our lowgrade wool any more than the tariff on broadcloth raises the price of jeans In 1866 the wool was 61 cents per pound in 1867 it was 61 cents and in 1868 it dropped as the tariff law went into effect to 43 cents and ha been fallingtever since If the tariff had raised the price our wool should have sold at over 70 cents in 18C3 for during the three years prior to 1860 the wool sold from 70 to 95 cents per pound The quotation from Henry George is correct enough as a general principle but there are exceptions to it and wool is one of them for this r ason that a large part of American woolen mills stand idle today because of the high price of imported wool which circumstance causes a depressei market for the home product Though he knew that I did not he twice repeats that I asserted this es portingmakes us pjor and then vih curious inconsistency he says I want the mines to continue that we may have something to expert that we may become rich Whut is this something thing that he desires to export IDJS largely gold and silver yet In a former article he wrote that when money is exported ex-ported it is lost so far as this country is concerned Here he now advocates what he before called a lossthe exportation ex-portation of gold and silver Further on he quotes me correctly that a country becomes rich when its imports exceed its exports and asks in dismay Then why produce anything at all Why not import all we consume If our imports will be given to us what better can we do than accept them If we can get them without giving our product for them we have no objections Ba imports are always bought with oui own products and in producing these products we have given all the employment employ-ment that our capital can give to the wording classes He asss again Why export so much wheat beef pork etc it the country becomes poor by so doing The country does not become poor by exporting ex-porting when it receives a larger return re-turn as in this case it does Bat just persande the owners of the wheat beef and pork to receivd in return a smaller value than their export and ask them if they havnt lost by the transaction Now Mr Thompson you pretend to be practical just put your theory to the I I practical teat When you shear your I I sheep and send the wool abroad instruct in-struct the merchants to send you only half what the wool is worth so that your export will exceed your import in value onehalf When you get thIS return send it abroad with the same understanding and keep on in this way Does tnis convince you that to be profitable your imports must exceed ex-ceed your exports If not tacit exchange ex-change with me on these conditions My imports from you must not exceed in value my exports to you but what you receive from me must be less in value than what von send me Thus I will find customers for all your sheep at 25c per head for your cows at 5 per head for your wheat at lOc per bushel and so on These are your own conditions con-ditions rememberyour theory put into practice Now supposing you to represent Denmark and me to represent America which country would lose Are you answered yet Moreover I agree to send you money and to require re-quire only your goods BO that you will always have the balance of trade in your favoryour exports will exceed your imports in value and you will increase in-crease your money but diminish your wealth at each exchange Shall I I know your answer I further agree to subject mysejf to the calamity that you fear might befall the nation and shall receive without complaint all you choose to send me and not distress yon with any import to you You can thus to use a wellknown protectionist phrase inundate one with cheap goods while I then a i ruined martyr to free tradeas you suppose sup-pose must stem this tide of good things I as best I may A Ward said that many a young man had been ruined by a large fortune remarking at tau same time that he would like to be ruined And while the present writer is well aware thatif wool clothing should be cheapened onehalf people might become so extravagant with their surplus sur-plus wealth that thev would suffer thereby yet he believes that most people peo-ple will cheerfully assume the danger of being ruined by paying little and receiving re-ceiving much Mr Paul reasserts that 175 000 can be saved out of 81OuOOOO simply by adding a few thousand dollars in drugs and chemicals to the latter The above is another scarecrow of his I did not assert such a thing but 1 proved that a first loss of 27000000 on raw wool would amount to a loss of nearly 100000000 in the cloth that is finally bought In like manner the loss of 35 000000 on imported cloth will be more than doubled by the time it goe into consumption and these double and accumulative losses are paid in order to support a total capital of 90 000000 in the wool industry It woul I be vas ly cheaper to pay the sheep owners30 percent on their capital pay every sheepherder his present wages and let them stand idle They say that would deprive sheepherders sheep-herders of work Well what if it does Are they working because they like to herd sheep or because of the pay they get for it They would get just ab much pay under the new conditions and wouldnt have to work at all while the whole nation would get cheaper clothing It isn t work we want but results The less the amount of work necessary to feed and clothe us the more leisure and wealth we shall have for enjoyment culture travel charity etcThis This last farce of Mr Thompsons closes with the baby act of calling me names and contains the masterly argument argu-ment in favor of tariff that I part my hair in the middle dangle a cane etc I deny both these heinous charges but I want to know what all these crimes he says I am guilty of have to do with the tariff tI fl says he will no longer give my articles any notice He is wise j his friends thought he would have come to that conclusion some time since He entered this tariff fight as a bully and bas been repeatedly knocked clear out of the ring until at last baffled in every attack and beaten in every point he makes this pitiable display of himself to avoid an open surrender His final defense de-fense of tha tar ff as he crawls oil into the dust i i that his opponent little I I take this to mean that he is big that his bodily girth and length are greater than mine but the size of his jody does not prove his argument correct cor-rect any more than the size of his ears i would prove it This Is net a question I of avoirdupois nor is it as the Spring vine correspondent seems to think a question of grammar In another place this irate gentleman from Denmark speaks aboat Mr Pauls country of high wages Let me inform him that America is my country and that he wonld better be more sparing of advice to Americans to cross the seas to freetrade England or he may be advised to eo back to the protectionist Denmark Americans were bore first and propose to stay Finally I nail the following propositions pro-positions upon the door of every argument argu-ment of protectionists and announce myself ready to defend these same propositions on wnich 1 have defeated the wool growers And I defy any protectionist pro-tectionist to read the arguments and I tben say it has not been proved t > the utter discomfiture of the tariff advocates advo-cates that the propositions are comet And whoever says they are not correct may consider himself under s challenge from the present writer to debate any or all of them 1 + foreigners do not directly or indirectly in-directly pay protective duties 2The tariff on wool has caused the financial ruin of a large number of woolen manufacturers with consequent distress of laborers 3The tariff on wool has been of no real bpnefit to the sheep owners 4Money that is sent abroad to buy goods is not a loss but brings a gain to the country that sends it 5The nation whose imports exceed the exports in value is the nation that grows rich from commercial exchanges 6Money spent at home is not clear profit to the nation or the community 7It would be cheaper to nay the sheep owners 30 per cent on their capital and let them do nothing than to maintain the present tariff on wool |