New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-01-12
QUESTIONS ANSVERED.
From The RyenIng Post

suT-The tariff duty salt IT, according 20 Commits
sloner Wells from roper cent. al rdorem. There
IL bill before Congress in which it is proposed to
raise the duty third higher.
Salt 10 the necessare3 OF life II manufactured
in the United states chiefly by two great corporations,
the Syracuse Salt Company and the Saginaw Salt Com
pany. These monopolsts have persuaded Congress 10
let them Cypress the people for period OF nearly seven
years since 1862. They want to turn the screws
ntte-or rather good deal-tghter Mr.. Wells remarks
ia his Official report:
when consider how through the indispensable
OF this article or It's price from twenty
three cents per bushe in 1901 70 ortyeght cents IN 1869
has come home to the whole people; now snch increase
affects the great industrial interests involved in packing
Of beef pork hsb. and butter and consequently the dis
buon price Of food at home and its exchange for
foreign commodities abroad; ana especially when we
consider tina, the internal tax on TINS artee-whieh IN
1865 collected from ono company TO the extent OF
Oo0has been entirely removed Invew Of all
these circumstances may not well ASK whether pro.
lection 10 American Industry and regard to the interest
Of the whole people does not demand not only that there
be further increase Of tho tar and the price or salt
but that n reasonable and moderate reduction OF the
existing duties he promptly concodedP
viii THE TRIBUNE kindly answer this question OF the
Commissioner We should like to know whether 1t is in
Of this monstrous monopoly; whether will help
The Eeeng Post to defend the people against such
less robbery
Response Jy The Tribune.
The first point in a controversy is to be sure
of the facts. We presume that Mr.. Wells con-
GreenJack price in 1868. If so, the price of
Salt has not been enhanced since 1861 more
than that of Indian Corn, or Oats, or most
other farm products, which nobody imagines
to have been made dearer by the Tariff
Where is the price of salt enhanced since 81
in the proportion of as to 23Y If at the sea-
board only, the test is not fair one for most
of our consumers buy their Salt far inland and
if the relation Of prices be rs as TO % Mt this
port, there is, doubtless, far less disparity at
Syracuse, Cleveland, Chicago, and Dubuque.
The Tariff affects the price of Salt only where
the foreign comes in competition with the
home made article, or Mould come in the alb
sence of Protection. Utah, for example makes
her Salt from the water of her great Lake;
and it would not be penny dearer in the
absence of any Tariff whatever.
The Post asserts that Salt "is manufactured
"in the United States mainly by two great
corporations which it names. Yet they have
mound of pure rock Salt in Louisiana, very
near to steamboat and railroad transportation,
and not far from New Orleans. There
were formerly extensive Salt Works near
Abingdon IN Old Virginia, and on the
Kanawha in what is now West Vir-
gina; and salt springs are known to exist in
many other parts of the country. In so far as
the manufacture of Salt is now monopoly of
two great corporations, the high duty now
levied on its importation tends to overthrow
that monopoly, by extending the manufacture
to other and rival springs and companies
Free Trade would counterfeit this tendency,
by greatly diminishing the inducement to
restore salt-works destroyed during the late
war or to open those not hitherto developed.
On the whole, we do not believe the present
duty on Salt ruthless robbery" nor anything
OF the sort. We believe that it tends, on the
one hand, to rcplenish the Treasury, on tho
other, to develop and extend an important
branch of Home Industry. We believe large
sections of the country get their Salt quite
as cheap if there were no duty
on its importation. and that tho en-