The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3571, 19 December 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1882.

A good many efforts have been made from time to time to induce the Congress of the United States to lower the import duties on wool so as to open wide the gates for the introduction of the Australasian product. The last attempt in this direction received the support of all the Chambers of Commerce in the colonies, and it being known that there was a free trade party in Congress it was hoped some reduction would be made in favor of Australian wools. It was regarded as a most satisfactory sign of the growth of free trade opinion in the States that Congress appointed a Tariff Commission to enquire into the whole quee tion. This Commission has been taking evidence in all the principal manufacturing cities, but from the statements of witnesses it does not appear ti>at f there is any strong desire to adopt a free trade policy. As a matter of course the manufacturers are dead against any weakening of protection. A Mr flill, formerly a pottery manufacturer, argued that protection had reduced the price of china ware to the consumer, The cheapest and

best Rockingham ware and yellow ware in the world was now made in the United State*, and yet the duty on such goods was said to be prohibitory. Why would not the same condition of affaire produce the same result in the higher classes of goods ? How was it that, with an advance in the net costs of English warej and with the iucrease of duty from twenty-four to forty per cent j such warfe was now cheapest in the American market £ There was but one answer. It was by reason of the growth of the businees. If the tariff were increased the business would increase, domestic competition would arise, and prices would consequently fall. On the other hand, if the tariff were reduced many of the American potteries that were iidvV struggling for existence would have to succumb and to cloee their doors. With as good material as could be had on earth, why should they not be given the chance to develop it? Nearly every foreign country had specially favored the ceramic I art. The business of manufacturing chinaware in the States had never been intentionally protected by a tariff, because when the present tariff law was passed there was no such business here to be protected. The duty on it had been imposed for revenue only, not for protection. All the protection and encouragement that it ever had had been accidental.

With regard to import duties on wool the Commission took the evidence of a Mr Stockdale, who was one of a committee appointed by the wool growers of Washington county, Pa., to bring ths' wool question to the attention of the commission. He spoke of the solicitude with which the farmers of Washington watched the progress of the commission and would await its report. Washington county, he said, produced more wool in the same extent of territory than any otner part of the United States. It was the pioneer section in the production of wool in that country, particularly of the finer qualities of wool. To overturn or to depress that interest now would be almost equal to a public calamity. The prices of wool at present were insufficient to justify a continuance of the business, and yet the competition from Australia, with its cheap labor and its facilities for raising sheep, was so great as to threaten the destruction of the wool producing interest in Washington county. He read a report of the proceedings of the Wool Growers' Convention of Washington county, in which it is asserted that the present duties on wool are wholly inadequate to afford the protection absolutely necessary ; and the suggestion is made th it the wool which now pays three cents a pound ehall pay nine cents, and that all other wool shall pay fifteen cents a pound and twenty per cent ad valorem. He said that there was a capital of 3,000,000 dols. invested in sheep in that county; that there were 300,000 sheep there; that the number had increased twenty-five per cent. and the yield per fleece" from three to five pounds since the tariff of 1867 went into operation. Mr Manchester made an argument in the same interest, and quoted an opinion prevailing among his neighbors that whatever report this commission would make would be adopted by Congress, because each of the political parties would be afraid to take the responsibility of preventing its adoption. He believed that nine-tenths of the wool growers of Washington county were in favor of the maintenance or increase of the present duty, but that a reduction of it would be disastrous and would cause the abandonment of the business.