THE WOOL TRADE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1873, 6 October 1913, Page 10

THE WOOL TRADE.

'AND THE AMERICAN PROBLEM. What the ioutcomo will be when 'America admits tho world's raw wool to Lor ports duty free no one can at present say. 'Tho possible contingencies are bo many that even those who make a daily study of the wool business cannot foretell what the upshot of the radical change (proposed by President . AVoodrow Wilson and now ratified by 1 Congress) may amount to. It is ono of 1 those revolutionary changes tho effect Df whicli will only bo discerned after Experience of tho new order of things. Only a few days ago Mr. P. H. D. Davidson, of Wellington (who has just returned from America) stated that ijjio impression which he had gained was that) with raw wool being admitted free, nnd tho duty on Bradford tops made morel.y nominal, American manufacturers would bo inclined to buy the imported tops rather than the raw wool, owing to tho cheap cost at which the tops icould be produced at Bradford, as compared with the States. But tho_ situation changes every day. It is now stated that, under the now tariff, textiles will be admitted into the United States at greatly reducedjluty charges— a reduction from about 50 per cent, to 15 per cent. . . Mr. M. Bourke, who operates largely 'in wool hoth as agent and on his own account, is of opinion that tho drop in the duty on textilos will have a serious effort on American manufacturers of woollen goods, who' could only live' behind tho shelter of a high.tariff wall, oil account of tho high wages which they havo to'pay. ' "It will mean," said Mr. Bourke, "that instead of the wool going to lAmorica direct, as muny suppose, it will bo shipped to the Continent, and will be made up into textiles at tho .various manufacturing towns in Franco nnd Germany,- where labour - is cheap. There is all the differences in the .world between paying weavers four dollars _ a day in America and four francs a day in Prance, or as little in Germany. It is going to kill tho American manufacturer—that is certain. "Even tlio Yorkshiromen n,ro alive to the situation," continued Mr. Bourke "Only yesterday a cable message was Teceived from Bradford recording a 6 per cent, riso in coarse crossbreds, in- ' dicating that the wool is wanted rather urgently. A wool-broker friend of mine has been advisod from Boston by the last mail that holders 1 there aro quitting as fast as .they can. Unless the tariff is again altered, the bulk of •bur wool will still be sent to England 'tend tho Continent."