than 245,000,000 at most, possibly not over 240,000,000 pounds. And in making this comparison of the different effects produced on the wool industry of this country by the higher-rate tariff of 1867 and the lower rates of 1883 it must not be forgotten that a most powerful influence operated just prior to the passage of the act of March 2, 1867, which tended strongly to neutralize for a considerable time the beneficial effects of that act.

This was the dumping on the markets of this country of not only an abnormal amount of importations of foreign wool, but also of immense quantities of cast-off Army supplies as a result of the closing of the war, consisting of nearly two and a quarter million of men's large coats, over one-quarter of a million of uniform coats, over half a million of sack-coats, nearly half a million trousers, over eight hundred thousand blankets, half a million shirts, besides great quantities of other clothing and cloths of various kinds.

What a terrible blow at an American industry in which are engaged to a greater or less extent 10 per cent. of all the qualified voters of the United States, or more than 1,250,000 of the 11,369,461 voters in the United States in 1888; an industry in which in 1880 were invested over $119,000,000 in sheep alone, to say nothing of the capital invested in addition in sheep lands, barns, sheds, and other things necessary in carrying on the sheep industry, estimated at over $408,000,000 more, making an aggregate investment of over $527,000,000; an industry which furnishes the tables of rich and poor alike with a cheap and nutritious meat in the 10,000,000 mutton-sheep annually slaughtered for that purpose, of the farm value of over $30,000,000; an industry in which are engaged, or were in 1880, 1,020,728 flock-masters, owners of as many flocks, and giving employment at good wages, as herdsmen and shearers alone, to over 100,000 men, to say nothing of the 320,000,000 pounds of wool produced in this country in a single year before the evil influences of the act of 1883 began to operate, of the value of over $91,000,000, produced from the backs of 50,626,626 sheep-the number we had in this country in 1884-of the estimated value of nearly $120,000,000; an industry, moreover, whose importance and magnitude can not be properly estimated unless note is also made of the fact that we have in this country, or had before the mischievous act of 1883 was enacted, 2,689 domestic woolen manufactories with an invested capital of nearly $160,000,000, employing 161,557 persons, paying them annually as wages the sum of $47,389,000, in working up wool and other materials used of the value of $164,371,551-these were the figures in 1880; they are much greater now-and turning out a product of the value of $267,252,913.

But mark the further disastrous consequences of the reduction of the tariff on wool by the act of 1883. The imports of wool into this country in 1882 amounted to 67,861,744 pounds only, but under the encouragement given to importers by the act of 1883, the importations in 1887 had increased to 114,038,030 pounds, and the following year (1888) to 126,487,724 pounds, and during the past year (1889) the amount of our importations, not all, of course, in raw wool, but including raw wool and wool in woolen goods, about the amount of 378,000,000 pounds, or what is the equivalent of the fleeces from the backs of over 70,000,000 head of foreign sheep.

This total of importations is made up of the following items: First, worsted and woolen goods as per the appraised value at the customhouse-the real value, doubtless, being much more of $52,560,000,

being equivalent to 156,000,000 pounds of wool, to which must be added wool importations as follows-carpet wools, equal to unwashed wool, 150,000,000 pounds; imported clothing wools, equal to unwashed, 35,000,000 pounds; combing wools, 12,000,000 pounds; waste, equal to unwashed, 25,000,000 pounds; total, including that imported in woolen goods, 378,000,000 pounds.

The wool industry of the United States, Mr. President, is menaced by the vastness as well as the marvelous annual increase in the production of wool in Australasia, and in the South American countries. The estimate of the wool clip in Australasia alone for the present year is 578,000,000 pounds-it was 458, 451,760 pounds in 1888 and 478,000,000 pounds in 1889—and the increase in number of sheep the present year is placed at 20 per cent., which would shear an additional 100,000,000 pounds of wool. The number of sheep in Australia more than doubled in the past ten years. In 1878 the number was 49,773,584; in 1888, 96,487,811. And thus it is while we, for lack of adequate protection, have in six years reduced the number of our sheep 7,000,000 head and the amount of our annual product over 50,000,000 pounds, Australasia alone will in a single year increase the amount of her clothing wool product alone more than one-third of the whole annual product of the United States.

But right at our very door, on our own hemisphere, we find the valley of the Plate in South America, producing 375,000,000 pounds of clothing wool alone, not including some 200,000,000 pounds of mixed grades of carpet wools and clothing wools from other sections; the United Kingdom, 133,000,000 pounds; the Continent, 450,000,000 pounds-all fleece washed; the countries of North America outside of the United States, 95,000,000 pounds; the Cape of Good Hope country, 93,000,000 pounds; which with 184,000,000 pounds of all other sorts, makes a grand annual world's product of clothing wools outside of the United States of 1,788,000,000 pounds, to which must be added other Asiatic and African wools, South American carpet wools, and the carpet wools of the Balkan Peninsula of Europe, the whole estimated by Justice, Bateman & Co., of Philadelphia, at 500,000,000 pounds, and we have a grand annual aggregate, not including the product of the United States, of 2,298,000,000 pounds, and if to this we add 250,000,000 pounds as the product of the United States, we find the world's annual product, as well as the world's annual consumption of wool at the present time, is about 2,548,000,000 pounds.

In 1880, ten years ago, the world's product was 2,033,000,000 pounds, showing an increase in ten years in the annual production of wool of the world of about 25 per cent., whereas in the United States there has been in that period an increase in the annual product of only about 5 per cent. This disproportion, however, the past few years, is plainly attributable to the reduced rates of the tariff of 1883. A comparison of the increase of ratio in the production of wool between the United States and the European, Asiatic, and African countries, especially the free-trade countries during a period anterior to the act of 1883, and including the two decades prior to that date will show a most marvelous increase in the ratio of production of the United States over that of all other countries, excepting, perhaps, Australasia, the increase in the United States from 1860 to 1884 being 'from 60,000,000 pounds to 320,000,000 pounds, while Australasia increased its wool product from 50,000,000 pounds in 1860 to 450,000,000 pounds in 1884, and to 478,000,000 pounds in 1889. And although Europe gradually increased its

product from 50,000,000 pounds to 70,000,000 pounds, since then it has fallen off over 25 per cent. by reason of coming into competition with the wools of Australia, and the Argentine Republic.

Notwithstanding these indisputable facts, we find a Democratic House of Representatives in 1888, under the lead, or recommendation rather, of a Democratic President, passing through that House a tariff measure in which wool is placed on the free-list, and a tariff tax, as our Democratic friends would term it, is continued on sugar; that is to say, they solemnly propose to impress a tax on one of the necessaries of life, an article of universal consumption, an article that can not be produced in this country, or at least is not at present, to the extent of over 10 per cent. of the demand, and to place on the free-list wool, an article which, under the protection afforded by the act of 1867, was produced to an amount considerably more than 80 per cent. of our total consumption, and which could undoubtedly by proper protection be stimulated so as to increase the number of our sheep, and by an improvement in the grades of wools, to over 100,000,000 head and our wool product to over 500,000,000 pounds.

This bill came to the Senate, and as a substitute a bill was presented to the Senate by the Finance Committee and passed through this body on the 31st day of January, A. D. 1889, in which the tariff on wool was restored to a range of duty nearly equal to that imposed by the act of March 3, 1867. So amended and passed, the bill was returned to the Democratic House and there permitted to die. The issue thus made and others of kindred nature, all involving the question as to whether a tariff for revenue only or one having in view protection to the industries and wage-workers of this country, was presented to the people in the national campaign of 1888 and decided adversely to the Democratic party, and adversely to the Democratic theory of free trade or a tariff for revenue only. And now one purpose of the present bill is to correct the mistake and repair the damage done to the wool industries of this country by the act of 1883.

The House bill aimed to meet the question squarely, and it does, as it is believed, under a proper construction, respond in a fairly substantial manner to the demands of the people. But owing to a recent judicial decision and certain statements that have appeared in Eastern journals as to the probable construction to be placed on certain provisions of the bill, it may be well for the Committee on Finance before the wool schedule is reached to make diligent inquiry as to the exact meaning of the House bill, which is also substantially the pending bill on this subject. That bill, it will be observed, divides dutiable wools into three classes-clothing, combing, and carpet wools.

The first class is made dutiable at 11 cents per pound, that of the second class at 12 cents per pound, while on all wools of the third class, the value of which shall be 13 cents or less per pound, an ad valorem duty of 32 per cent. is proposed, which is equivalent to a specific rate of 3 cents per pound, while on wools of the third class the value whereof shall exceed 13 cents per pound 50 per cent. ad valorem is imposed. Doubtless it was the intention of the committee in consenting to these classifications and rates that all wools having any admixture of merino wool, whether immediate or remote, should pay a specific duty of 11 cents per pound, and, further, that no wool, whether imported from South America, Smyrna, or any other country, which had any admixture whatever of merino, although imported as carpet wools, should come in simply as third class, either at 32 or 50 per cent. ad valorem,

but that all such wools and hair should be included in the first class and should be dutiable at 11 cents per pound.

If such is the construction to be placed on the bill, then well and good. If, however, it is to be held under these provisions, as reported, and as the bill now stands, that wools and hair of class 3, that is to say, Donskoi, native South American, Cordova, Valparaiso, native Smyrna, Russian camels' hair, including all such wools of like character as have heretofore been usually imported into the United States from Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere, can come in under the proposed ad valorem duty of 32 per cent. when the price is 13 cents or less per pound, or at 50 per cent. ad valorem when it is over 13 cents in price, regardless of the question as to how much admixture of merino wool it may contain, then, as a measure of protection to the wool-growers of the United States, the provisions are comparative failures, in so far as they relate to this particular branch of the subject. And if still further, what is known as "sorts" and "matchings," which constitute a fine clothing wool, obtained from the spine and ribs of sheep in many foreign countries, usually called carpet sheep, but which have been crossed in breeding with merino sheep, some having one-eighth and some more of merino blood, can come in as third class at the ad valorem duty, then the proposed legislation might be termed a total fail

ure.

There is, it is apprehended, much reason to fear such a construction may be placed on these provisions, not only by the Department but also by the courts, and the uncertainty and doubt with which this matter is thus left, with the chances, as is generally the case when left open to construction, largely in favor of the importer, is but another illustration of the objectionable character of ad valorem duties as compared with specific duties, and especially when applied to an article of so many different grades and admixtures as that of wool. The phraseology used in these provisions in describing the different kinds of wool is, in so far as the question now being considered is concerned, identical with that of the existing law upon this subject.

In a case recently determined before the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, held at Philadelphia, in a case involving the query as to what duties should, under the existing law, be imposed on wool claimed to be carpet wool imported from Smyrna, it was held by that court that the wool, "commercially known" as carpet wool, coming from a country classified in the law as a coarse or carpet-wool country, is to be deemed carpet wool, notwithstanding as a matter of fact it may be quarter-blood merino, or even though "sorts or matchings" can be taken from the fleeces equal to or better in grade and quality than the quarter-blood merino of this country.

Should such a construction obtain, it is plain to be seen that millions of pounds of as good clothing wool as is produced in this country will be imported as third-class or carpet wool at ad valorem duties of 32 and 50 per cent., depending on the price of the article, equivalent to a specific duty of perhaps from 3 to 5 cents per pound, and thus brought into direct competition with the merino and other clothing wools of this country. I should hope to see such an amendment to the pending bill as would forbid beyond question any such construction, either by departmental officials or the judicial courts.

Again, it has already been suggested by articles appearing in eastern journals, evidently in the interest of the woolen manufacturers, that

the provisions in this bill relating to sorting, dividing of fleeces, and other like changes from the ordinary condition, being section 383 of the bill as it passed the House, and section 365 as reported from the Finance Committee, do not apply to wools on which an ad valorem duty is placed by the pending bill. This section of the bill as it passed the Houseand no change has been proposed-is as follows:

365. The duty upon wool of the sheep or hair of the camel, goat, alpaca, and other like animals which shall be imported in any other than ordinary condition, or which shall be changed in its character or condition for the purpose of evading the duty, or which shall be reduced in value by the admixture of dirt or any other foreign substance, or which has been sorted or increased in value by the rejection of any part of the original fleece, shall be twice the duty to which it would be otherwise subject: Provided, That skirted wools as now imported are hereby excepted, Wools on which a duty is assessed amounting to three times or more than that which would be assessed if said wool was imported unwashed, such duty shall not be doubled on account of its being sorted. If any bale or package of wool or hair specified in this act imported as of any specified class, or claimed by the importer to be dutiable as of any specified class, shall contain any wool or hair subject to a higher rate of duty than the class so specified the whole bale or package shall be subject to the highest rate of duty chargeable on wool of the class subject to such higher rate of duty, and if any bale or package be claimed by the importer to be shoddy, mungo, flocks, wool, hair, or other material of any class specified in this act, and such bale contain any admixture of any one or more of said materials or of any other matorial, the whole bale or package shall be subject to duty at the highest rate imposed upon any article in said bale or package.

In an article published in the Boston American Wool Reporter in its issue of May 29, 1890, this section of the bill is referred to in the following language:

It is the opinion at the Treasury Department that the adoption of an ad valorem duty on carpet-wool would operate to except it entirely from the clause (of the McKinley bill) imposing double and tripfe duties, where the wool is changed from its original condition. Governor DINGLEY, of Maine (a member of the Committee on Ways and Means), concurs with the Treasury officials in the opinion that the ad valorem duties on carpet-wools supersede any provisions of the "sorting" clause. If there is any doubt about this in the present language of the bill, it is promised that it shall be made clear by the Senate.

It does not appear from this editorial by whom this promise has been made to the effect that if there is any doubt about this construction it shall be so amended as to leave no doubt on the subject. I can not but believe that the writer of this article in the Boston American Wool Reporter reckoned without his host, as I fancy no member of the Senate Committee on Finance would insist for one moment either that such is the proper construction of the bill or that the bill should be so amended that such would be the inevitable construction. Upon the contrary I can not but believe that in view of this doubt, to say the least of it, raised by this influential journal, the committee would feel not only warranted but in justice to all interests compelled to insert a clause which would render any such construction absolutely impossible. In referring to this article in the Boston American Wool Reporter, Hon. William Lawrence, of Ohio, than whom no man west of the Alleghany Mountains is more thoroughly versed in all matters pertaining to this general subject, in a letter of date June 4 last, published in the Cleveland Leader, says:

This means that the fine portions of carpet-wool fleeces may be "sorted" out and imported at about 3 cents duty, and be used for the manufacture of clothing, supplanting American wool, and ruin our wool industry. How the woolgrowers of Maine and New York, Iowa, and other States will relish this we may learn in due time. For one I will say if the ad valorem duties now in the bill remain, and with the rulings of the Treasury Department as stated, the bill, or rather the construction given it, will make it a sham and a fraud on wool-growers, and will ruin our wool industry. And if this is to come, free trade will come