The wool-grower argues, however, that wool can be produced so much cheaper in Argentina and Australia that, if admitted free of duty to the United States, it would bring about the total disappearance of the American wool industry. The latest available figures given in the report of the Tariff Board show a world production of about 2,500,000,000 pounds of wool, of which the United States produces about one eighth. The world supply would furnish less than a pound of clean wool per head of population, not enough to give each of us more than one suit in three years. Of course the latter estimates are only approximate, but they are not far from the truth. If it were not for the plentiful admixture of cotton and shoddy to the annual stock of new wool, there would not be enough wool to clothe the people of the earth. Under these conditions, there is no danger of the world failing to make use of American wool. Any considerable curtailment in the production of American wool would have the tendency of raising the world’s price of wool to such an extent as to offer renewed encouragement to the American wool-grower. So much for that. But is it true that it costs so much to raise wool in the United States?
The Tariff Board reported that the average cost of production of wool in this country is about three times as high as in Australia and about double that in South America. On that basis our present duty is ridiculously low, and it is a wonder that our wool industry has not long gone out of existence. What is the secret of its miraculous escape from total extinction?
The Tariff Board average represents widely different conditions of production. A large part of the wool grown in this country--no less than eleven per cent. of the wool covered by the board’s investigation--is raised without any cost whatever to the wool-grower; in fact, he gets “a net credit,” to quote the board, or a premium, with each pound of wool coming from his sheep’s back. This is true of sheep-growers who are employing up-to-date methods in their business and have substituted the cross-bred merino sheep for the old-type pure merino. The cross-bred sheep is raised primarily to meet the enormous and rapidly growing demand for mutton. The price realized from the sale of mutton is sufficient not only to cover the entire expense of raising the sheep, but leaves the farmer a net profit, before he has sold a pound of his wool, which has become a by-product with him, and the proceeds from which represent a clear gain. It will be easily seen that the up-to-date mutton-sheep breeder can do very well without any duty on wool.