Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/355

 THE MCKINLEY TARIFF ACT 333 upon wool. The Mills Bill, passed by the Democrats in 1888, admitted it free of duty; and that change was felt by both parties to be of incisive importance. The McKinley Act, on the other hand, not only maintained but raised the duties on all classes of wool. Retaining the classification which had previously existed, it divided wool into three classes: clothing wool, combing wool, and carpet wool. The duty on clothing wool goes up from ten to eleven cents per pound, and that on combing wool from ten to twelve cents per pound. The changes in the third_ class, carpet wool, can be best shown by a tabular statem,nt. The duty is changed from specific to ad valorem, as follows: .- Old Rate :-, If worth 1. cents or less per pound, duty 2 cents. If worth more than 1. cents per pound, duty 5 cents. Rate under the Mc- t If worth 13 cents or less, 3. per cent. ad valorem. Kinley Act: If worth more than 13 cents, 50 per cent. ad valorem. In addition, there are certain provisions as to the application of the classification, which tend to make these duties more rigorous. Thus, if any wool of the third class (carpet wool), has been im- proved at all by an admixture of merino or English blood, it must be classified as clothing or combing wool. Again, if a bale of wool stated by the importer to be dutiable areder one class, shall contain any wool whatever of another class, the whole bale is subject to the duty of the higher class. Provisions of this sort, combined with certain regulations of a separate administrative bill, also passed by this Congress, make the changes somewhat greater than they seem to be on the surface. It is not probable that these duties upon wool, which must strike the European reader as most curious illustrations of an ex- treme protective policy, will have any considerable effect in check- ing the importation of wool, or in stimulating its domestic pro- duction. The class of wool described as carpet wool, used chiefly in the manufacture of carpets, is grown only to a very slight extent in the United States. It is of a coarse quality grown mainly in semi-civilized countries, and is imported from all quarters of the world; from Russia, from Asia Minor, from the Argentine Republic, from India. With the same labour and the same amount of at- tention the wool grower in civilized communities can secure a better quality of wool, commanding a higher price; accordingly he con- fines himself to the more profitable sort. The supply of carpet wool