The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-24
What Ut Costs.

What Vt Costs.
FROM The NJ y. Evening Post.
The Tribune gives the consumption Of pig
iron in the United States as follows
1884, sso a das ss $40 % 5sS' FtfseS $685. o.
I@Ported ] SN owts S7s 5si s57'sS s,s7s7So si@SOS
copsp,Ion cwr22ssol rs $50 2u 81 aa5 alO 8iiO7 0O5
These figures appear to be nearly correct.
The duty on the 2, 1919 hundred weights
imported is, at nine dollars per ton, not quite
$3.50, 600; allowing eight per cent. for the
gross cost of collecting the duty, the actual
receipts of the Treasury from the tax on pig
iron was not quite 1915, 900 in gold. What
does this tax cost the people
Pig iron Is now worth in New York, IL there
were no law TO make it dear, less than $40 per
ton in gold; but it sells at $29 per ton in gold,
and the whole amount consumed, which the
Tribune states at l, 655, 800 tons, thus costs
the people $l6, 553, 900 in gold more than it is
worth, on account of the tax. Thus the peo-
pie are actually taxed by act of Congress
$l6,500,000 in gold every year; of which
1915, 900 are for the Treasury, and all the rest,
nearly ninety five per cent. OF the whole, is
sheer waste, so far as the country is con-
oerned, going to enrich men who render no
equivalent. Where 1t goes is shown by such
returns as set of furnaces sin one of the
Middle States" made to the owners, and
which Mr.. Wells gives in his report, "show-
ing yearly product of 30, 900 tons, on capi-
tai of $3.50, 900, sold at profit Of from $40 to
$13 ton," an annual profit Of one hundred
per cent. on the capital.
Under the rapid improvements science and
experience are suggesting, iron and all of its
manufactures grow cheaper in the markets Of
the world every year. This movement is a
measure of civilizations; and the progress of
society at large, as well as the condition of any
single community or nation, cannot be more
foi r11r Cd han bu fha oil r1a hnx
much iron will days work buy? But as
discoveries and inventions are made which
| cheaper iron, the moDopolsts of this country
cry out for higher duties, lest the fall in price
ruin them. The question is between them
and the community at large. They demand
| the exclusion from this country of the benefits
OF advancing civilization, in order that their
rapid rate of amassipg riches may not be
| diminished.
II is said that the new Ellershausen process
will cheaper wrought iron fifteen dollars a ton.
| II so, those who make wrought iron by the old
| process will demand an additional duty to that
amount on all WI ought iron, in order that
| they may not be ruined. This claim is just
| if ''the protective principle" as the TTibun,
calls it, has any place in legislation; if take;
are to be levied, five per cent. for the Treasury
| and ninety FIVE to enrich producers. But il
so, a general law forbiddiDg improvements o
| all kinds in manufactures, and inflctinf
heavy penalties on any one who makes labor
more efficient, would attain the same end
with less appearance of injustice.
There are many taxes like this on pig iron,
which take twenty dollars from the people
| for every dollar which reaches the trersury
Those who complain of heavy taxation ought
at least to know where the money goss.
the people have heavy burdens to bear, they
are not the burdens ef the war and of the
national debt. These would be felt as a serious
drawback to the prosperity of the country,
were they not made doubly and trebly op-
pressive by what are called protective duties
on home manufactures; that is, duties so con-
trived as to raise prices to the highest degree
possible, without yielding any important aid
to the Government.
little consideration of these taxes O
twenty dollars for monopolies and one for the
nation, will satisfy any impartial man tina
this obvious evil is by no means the chief ont
which results from the system. The taxes or
iron enter into the price of every fabric anG
product used in life. Food, clothing, rent
travelling, furniture and books, are mad
much dearer by it, andth epjoyments of every
man in the community who is not very ricl
are curtsiled by it. Business of every kinC
is hsmpered and burdened by it in unnum
bered ways; and the general prosperity Of tn,
country suffers from it tenfold more than
would from direct impost levied to supper
in idle luxury every man in the country nov
engaged in making iron. The revenues of tn,
Government suffer with the general prosperity
and there is no doubt at all that the repeal O
every duty on iron and manufactures of irol
would indirectly add to the duties received
from other articles many times as much re
venue as it would abandon.