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Show A MOTHER'S PROTEST. SHE OBJECTS TO THE ENORMOUS TARIFF ON WOOLENS. la American Woman Who Declares This Tax to Be Worse Than King George's Notorious Tax on Tea, Which the World tlemembers Well. The following letter from an Ameri-san Ameri-san mother to the New York World is a strong and reasonable protest against the tax imposed by the McKinley tariff on woolen goods: I am a busy mother, and 1 am shut in my room with grip. I have spoken disrespectfully dis-respectfully of it did not believe in it. Now it has me in its grip and I could cry. One other thing this winter 1 did not believe, have found true and have cried over the cruelty of the tax on woolens to little children. "Rise some avenger from their" deprivations. 1 am not a woman suffragist. I have wished that my husband would go into politics no more than duty requires of loyal men, and 1 look to American men to stop this tax, which is, 1 say, the moat monstrous iniquity done in out land since the days of our acquaintance with King George III. But the stupid arrogance of his taxation was more endurable en-durable than the fraudulent sham of fellow citizens. Where is the spirit ol the men who threw over the tea in Boston Bos-ton harbor? How I should like to see Mr. McKinley there! But this is irrelevant ir-relevant and he is governor of Ohio, and of course it was not the money of any tariff beneficiaries that helped him there! King George III, stupid and bigoted as he was, would never have legislated against the health of growing children the men to be. Good woolens are as necessary as good milk to children, aud he who dilutes their milk is no worse than he who taxes their flannels. 1 have lost no child yet, and 1 believe 1 owe it, under God, greatly to their good woolen clothing. 1 have let silks and velvets go; even my bonnets may go, but my little ones have always had a full supply of good all wool clothing, from head to foot, "from the skin out," of different dif-ferent weights, as tha weather changes, ffevr our best houses offer me an inferior in-ferior German stocking at the price 1 have paid for English merino. There is an Australian wool in the market, heavy and coarse all kinds of inferior substitutes. substi-tutes. The beautiful, soft, heavy French flannel 1 have made my little girl's dresses of for years is taxed out of the markeL It is now made nearly as light as cashmere, cash-mere, being taxed by weight, Arnold's coarse German flannel at the, old price of the French. I looked for Shaker skirting skirt-ing flannel at remnant counters. The kind 1 wanted was dear "because there is a great deal of wool in it." Domestic flannels are dearer; perhaps because the price can be raised. Now, 1 ask, what will be used by those who formerly bought German and domestic do-mestic woolens cheaply? Will their children wear a mixture of cotton and wool, mostly cotton, or shoddy shod-dy or all cotton? Ask Mr. McKinley. I cannot believe he understood what he was doing. Woolens may be less necessary neces-sary inland, and men do not know it all about children and flannels, but there will be more croup, diphtheria and bronchitis, more half clothed and stunted stunt-ed children. How dare they make this infamous thing a law? ' But I hav faith in my country yetl Our people are very patient and law-abiding, law-abiding, but when the wrong is under stood I believe there is a power in our land to rise against it, by whatever party it is done. 1 am told there are Republicans opposed to this measure of the men who lead them by the nose. I am not an unpatriotic woman. 1 could not possibly go abroad and leave my children behind me. 1 do not even care to import Paris gowns I like New York dressmaking better. Yet I, too, had ancestors who lived and died pro ' patria. My great-grandmothers spun their own wool and knitted it for husbands hus-bands and sons whose naked feet left prints of blood on the snows of New Jersey, and 1 will do it if there is a necessity. But are we at war? Is there need for a war tariff? Need I eat squash instead of Malaga grapes? 1 should like to see our commerce whiten tha seas of the world. I should like to see good merino wools made at home; then take off the tax on raw material ma-terial 1 1 know something about the sheep raising. I have an interest in a western farm where we took great pride in our sheep. The Sundown wool was tbe finest we raised, altogether superior to most wool in the market, jet inferior to merino wool. understand the merino me-rino sheep do not bear our climate. Please ask American men about these things, and ask them to set it right next fall or sooner. Sugar may bo taxed again, I hear another thing needed by children. 1 am reminded of Dean Swift's remark when some one said, "The air in Ireland is very excellent and healthy." "For heaven's sake," said Swift, "don't say so in England; for if you do they will certainly tax it." |