Mr. SPRAGUE. I am speaking of the case as it stands. I knew something of this'bom modity prior to the war. It costs the manufacturer about halfa cent a pound. It is put into a machine and torn into pieces, and the 1 fibers from old blankets and old woolen clothes of all sort s are used, as I say, to compete with the foreign article. There was no demand for woolen rags in this country prior to the intro duction of this article. They could not be sold. By taxing this article out of existence the value that the people of this country derive from the sale of their own woolen clothing will become useless. You affect every individual in this country in the amount of the value of the wool that he uses when you tax this commodit in the manner in which you propose. You might just as well tax anv article that enters into woolen cloth out o proportion to any other article in it, because some of the properties of that article are not of equal value to some others. Everybody who knows anythin on this subject, in examining the qualities of cfoth, knows at once which contains shoddy and which does not. The people cannot be deceived in the purchase of pan article with or without shoddy. There is a great deal of wear in the material that is used. If you destroy its use, you destroy an article which, 1st, is of value in wear, as it has wear, and you destroy a large value of property which has been here tofore used, and’ you prevent the people from exercising economy in collecting together their old materials and making the best use of them. Sir, if this proposition be adopted, its effect will be to legislate out of existence is quality which is very common in the people of other countries, and which we have endeavored to introduce among the people of this country, of economy in tieir living and in everything connected with wear. I should conceive that to be one of the most deplorable conditions of things. It is well known that we in this country live at greater expense than those abroa. Our people complain of the high price of everything in this country in comparison with the cost of the same articles in other countries, and one of the causes of' those high prices is the extravagance and the waste among H nor, or shape. shoddy. l estate; and this amendment is of’feret our people. Here is an opportunity whereby a commodity may be saved, may be put into use, and may be made an element of public wealth and of advantage.