The Shoddy Scandal: How the Tariff Made Our Clothes Garbage
Aberdeen readers are warned that under the McKinley Tariff, the American clothing industry has swapped quality wool for 'shoddy' rags, hair, and cotton.
There can be little doubt that the American people wear more shoddy than do the people of any other country on the face of the globe. According to the census statistics of 1880, the total amount of raw material consumed in the manufacture of woolen goods was 404,000,000 pounds. After reducing wool to a secured basis, we find that only 118,000,000 pounds of pure wool were consumed. This shows that the composition of woolen goods made in 1880 was 108 parts of adulterants and 118 parts of pure wool. The census of 1890 shows that the number of pounds of pure wool used had increased to 124,000,000, and of shoddy, cotton, and other adulterants from 106,000,000 pounds in 1880 to 154,000,000 pounds in 1890—thus giving a ratio of 45 parts of pure wool to 55 parts of adulterants. Since the McKinley bill went into effect, the shoddy business has enjoyed an era of unusual prosperity, with manufacturers producing clothes largely from rags, hair, and cotton.
“For more than twenty years the great tariff swindle has been like an incubus upon this fair land.”
In 1892, citizens were outraged by the 'shoddy' quality of mass-produced goods, blaming tariff-fueled monopoly for declining product standards. Today’s discourse on 'fast fashion' and the environmental cost of disposable synthetic clothing echoes these same anxieties about quality and corporate control.
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