The Somerset herald and farmers' and mechanics' register. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 183?-1852, 1845-12-23

the country win tne mum OF cOntenteu
industry, and had brought down the price
of the poor mans clothing from thirty-six
cents yard, down-down-lown, as
the system proceeded, till at last it gave
it to him at six cents yard. Now the
Secretary cried out that the duty on these
cottons was hundred and fifty per cent.
I ad vaiofem! Enormous! Horrid! And
! why! The duty had not changed, but
! the price had. As the price went down
the duty went up. At thirty-six cents
per yard, nine cents duty would be twen-
ty-hve per cent. at six cents yard, the
duty would be one hundred and fifty per
cent; and if the price descended d to one
cent yard, then the duty would be nine
hundred per cent! The poor man robbed
plundered, and Oppressed by duty ofnine
hundred per cent, simply because he gets
a yard of cotton goods for one cent a
yard! Let the manufacturer run up the
price to thirty-six cents again, and the op-
preston is all over; the duty of nine cents
a yard falls Instantly to twenty-five per
cent, moderate revenue duty. No more
complaint; these friends of the 'poor
man. are perfectly satisfied.
Such was the practical operation of
these odious mlnimums whic had reduced
the poor mans cotton goods from twenty
five and thirty cents per yard to six and
eight cents. Yet this was the system
which must be given up; this was the op-
Grafton tn twas so.opprcss.ve and SO mlcon-
sHiniioHai that it must be suffered to ex-
ist no longer upon our statute book The
duty was to be taken off the foreign goods
and put upon American manufacture;
such was the doctrine of this report.
Mr.. Johnson, of Tennessee, here a
gain asked Mr.. Stewart, if the tariff
brought down the prices of articles taxed,
what was it that brought down the price
of other goods in the same proportion.
Mr.. Stewart replied that such was not
the fact. Other goods not manufactured
here, silks, velvets, &C., had not declined
in the same ratio, nor had wages or agri-
cultural produce; because the protective
tariff had increased the supply Of domes-
tic goods by increasing competition, and
had sustained wages and agricultural pro-
dnce by creating an increased demand for
both. If the gentleman could compre-
hend that demand and supply regulate
price, it would be all plain.
When interrupted, he had been contro-
yerting the doctrines put forth by the Sec
retary in his report. He had referred to
a table which had been reported to the
House last session by the Committee Of
Ways and Means, for the purpose of
showing the enormous tax which was mn
posed by the system of nInaimaHas, but
when the Secretary, by the assistance of
the honorable chairman OF the Commit
tee of Ways and Means, was preparing
with great labor and pains this document,
he seemed to forget that he was at the
same moment furnishing mathematical
proof of the exact extent to which pro-
lection had reduced prices. BY conver-
ting specific into ad vaIorem duties, the
duty runs up precisely as the price runs
down, SO, by showing an increased rate
of duty, the gentlemen have only shown
reduced prices,
Tne duty is fixed, and cannot vary
The ad raiorem duties are always the
same. None were imposed by the tariff
of 1912 above 50 per cent. How, then,
does the President, in his message, get
duties of 900 per cent. This can only
be done by converting the specific duties
into ad raiorehl duties; and, when this is
done, high duty only shows low
price. If the duty is 200 per cent, the
price must be one-fourth only Of the du-
ty. Thus we are told that glass pays
the enormous duty Of 200 per cent, and
why? Because the duty is 81 per box,
and the price So per box; butt the glass
went down to 81 per box, the duty would
be 400 per cent. Thus we are told by
the Secretary of the Treasury and the
chairman of the Committee of Ways and
Means that the people paid in all tax
Of eighty-lour millions, of which but
twenty-seven went to the Government,
and fifty-seven to the manufacturers; and
he gave list of sixty or seventy articles
on which the duty amounted to more
than hundred per cent. Very well,
and what did this prove! Why, simply
llidt ule prices OF lnOSe aftlcicS nad D3e1
greatly diminished, as in the case Of cot
tons. The same duty which, when levi
ed, had been BUTTS per cent, hal now
become $50 per cent, simply because the
price had gone down to one-fourth part
of what it was. So the main result of
all the labor and ciphering Of the chair
man of the Committee of Wavs and
Means had been TO furnish to the whole
country official demonstration that prices
had been reduced by protective tariff to
one-fourth or one-ffth Of what they had
been in 1916. Take plain illustration:
the tariff imposed duty CT four cents per
pound on nails which in 1916 had been 6
cents per pound; SO that the duty then
25 per cent, on the price: but the same