Show WOOL AND WOOLENS Under the above heading the New York Commercial Advertiser says The duties on wool and woolens will form one of the most important schedules sched-ules of the new tariff and the wa sand s-and means committee should study the subjects in all Its details before It finally fixes the rates In this section as in every other the only safe principle prin-ciple is that of moderation and fairness I fair-ness The spokesmen of the National Wool Growers association headed by I Judge Lawrence have demanded virtually vir-tually prohibitory duties on foreign wool This demand Is indefensible on grounds of public policy Congress cannot afford to yield to it or to give It an instants favorable consideration American farmers have a clear right to an equitable measure of protection for their wool But protection does not mean the erection of an Impassable I barrier against foreign products The pressing need of the treasury for revenue and the importance of providing provid-ing for an adequate supply of cheap and comfortable clothing for the people peo-ple must be kept in mind by the tariff builders The woolen manufacturers have proposed rates of duty from 8 cents per pound upward on imported wools The McKinley duty was 11 cents and upward up-ward which is a higher rate than is now necessary It may be advisable for the ways and means committee to increase slightly the figures which the manufacturers regard as a desirable duty on their raw material but certainly cer-tainly there can be no excuse for raising rais-ing the rates to the level of the act of 1890 Trade and agricultural conditions condi-tions have undergone sweeping changes in the past seven years Duties which were entirely justifiable when the McKinley Mc-Kinley law was passed would in many instances be arbitrary and oppressive I at the present day And this the j woolen manufacturers should remember remem-ber applies equally to the finished goods which they produce and to the I wool grown cn the backs of American sheep Exorbitant duties on woolen clothing would be as unjust and foolish fool-ish as exorbitant duties on the wool itself In both cases the men who frame the tariff must resolutely resist all appeals to raise rates above the point of justice and moderation Such talk as that must be looked upon as rank heresy by stalwart Republicans Re-publicans To think that a Republican paper would admit that any demand by the wool growers and the wooolen manufacturers could be indefensible is one of the most remarkable as well as one of the most promising signs of the times It doex one good to see a condemnation of the McKinley duties from a Republican source What is the country coming to when a Republican Re-publican paper demands that those IIlf < d I who frame the tariff shall resist most resolutely all appeals to raise rates I above the point of justice and moderation modera-tion Surely the world do move I And in this Instance It is moving in the right direction |