The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-09-02
Are Tariff Taxes Added to the Prices

So we have a pretended "revenue REFORM"
into which some well-mesning men are drawn,
which would lew q tariff on tea, coffee, and
other articles we do not and can not produce,
and reduce the duties as far as possible on the
articles we can and do produce, and in which,
with fair, protection, we can compete with the
foreigner.
Its object is to cut down the duties on arti-
cles which the British, and others abroad,
make ana will sell us, and, of course, they are
willing our tea, sugar, coffee, etc, should pay
our revenue.
To build up this absurd "reform" and to
make protection to home industry seem base
wrong, We hear the loud assertions of Free
Traders and self-styled "Revenue Reformers"
that tariff is a tax, and adds its amount not
only to the imported article ON which it is levi
ed, but to the price OF the same article made
here; and that this added price goes to the
manufacturing "monopolists," who thus
| adroitly rob tine people. One of the League
lecturers said: 'On pig, bar and railroad iron
the people last year paid a tax, in the increas-
ed price and the duty, of over S45,000,000 of
which Government got but S5,000000, and
| $4,000, 900, went into the pockets of the iron
men" The Free Trader parades the "tax on
/ a man in his clothes" and the "tax on far
merss bedroom" in the same style.
Like assertions are made touching "tax" on
! lumber, woolens, etc. The aim of all this is
plainly to urge the British system of levying
| tariffs ON articles we do not md cannot pro-
duce and reducing or aboiishing the duties on
| articles we can manufacture here. This
scheme is of British origin, and parent and
child are alike.
An English writer well says of the effect of
the system there on the people: at hits them
doubly, and they suffer both ways; the value
Of their wages is lessened by the duties charg-
! ed on these neecessaries of food they consume,
and their wages are reduced by the free adj
| mission of foreign manufactures competing
with those they produce" Shall we adopt
this miserable system-this mongrel called
Stree trade, with tariff for revenue?"
Alexander Hamilton is supposed to have
had some craftsmanship and sagacity-pro-
| bablv not SO much as these learned free trade
agents sent out by the New York importers to
| enlighten us in the West-and in his famed
Report of 1891, as U. S. Secretary Of the
| Treasury, he said:
"But though it were true that the immedi-
ate and certain effect of tariff was an increase
of price, it is universally true that the contrary
| is the ultimate effect with every successful
j manufacture When domestic manufacture
has attained to perfection, and has engaged in
| the prosecution of it a competent number OF
/ persons, it can be afforded, and accordingly
| seldom or never fails to be sold cheaper, in
process Of time, than the foreign article for
| which it is = substitute. The internal COM
/ petition which takes place soon does away with
everything like monopoly, and by degrees re-
duces the price of the article TO the minimum
| of a reasonable profit OH the capital employed.
| This accords with the reason of the thing and
| with experience"
How has our experience agreed with Ham
ilton's viewsY Cottons, imported at % cents a
yard, have been exported of better quality,
| under a high tariff, at cents. Cotton hosiery
from 1860 to 1868 was reduced nearly half IN
price Delaines, imported at 35c to SOC, were
made here in 1868 of equal quality at 2Oc. The
| present prices of woolen cloths OF general con-
sumption are less than thirty years ago, and
wooIens are lower in gold to-day than in 1860
under lower tariff. Carpets are cheaper and
better.
Nails, axes, saws, tools, pins, &C., arc lower
under protection than formerly. Cast steel
was reduced from lSc to l3c in 1861, and sold
in the war for SIC, while the English, no bet
ter, was held at 45c, saving our Government
some money as well as dependence on an un-
friendly foreign power.
England raised the tariff on iron seventeen
times, beginning with 81 so, or ten shillings
sterling, IN 1919, and going up to $50 a ton in
1919 Did the price rise, as it should have
done by the assertions Of these wise men
Not Of ALL pigs and bars are stupid and
would go down In 1926 England could un-
dersen the world, and offered her iron at less
| than 500 q ton, took off the tariff, and cried,
"Hurrah for free trade in iron"
So of her woolens, Through four hundred
wears of high tariffs they fell in price, as capi-
tai, skill and competition at home increased,
and through protection she reached free trade
in woolens; but her suffering workmen beg
her to turn back to-day.
Let US follow our imports and prices of iron
a little as the simplest mode of details, and as
covering the like ground on other articles.
From 1889 to 1912, inclusive, the duty on im-
pcrted pig iron was from So 81 to 50 30 per
ton, and the price from S25 to S37. From 1643
/ TO 1857 the duty was raised TO S9 but the
price ranged lower, or from S25 to $50.
In 1850 it fell to 20 So, while the cost in
England was SI9 60, and the tariff 30 per cent,
and English bar iron was sold here at S4l 81,
our British cousins being engaged in selling at
cost or less in order to close up our mills, hav-
ing paid large sums, in le4S, to spread Free
Trade notions in this country, lower our tariff,
| and get US in their power. When this was
done they pushed up prices, and In 1854 sold
| US 1901 600 tons of pig iron at S38 Is, costing
| in England but 81 Z, and with the tariff only
| 30 per cent; and $4,000 tons Of bars at over
$40, and railroad iron at heavy prices and pro-
| fits, all ,Citb I0to tariff and in 1857 we had
a "crash," and labor went begging, and far
/ IlSI6 Q6u LlblE SudI6 VI lAOuOAGa
With the tariff at -, for four years, from
1913 to l846, pig iron ranged from S25 to 500,
averaging S27 20.
With the tariff reduced to 80 per cent. for
four years, from 1858 to 1856, the range was
from $27 to S37, and the average was $50, or
| 81 higher than under lower tariff.
These figures we take from official reports
| of Government Revenue Commissioners, and
find great fluctuations in prices, ruinous to us
if not guarded against by tariff; the English
producers paying the tariff at times, and again
the buyer here; Just as markets ranged, and,
most noteworthy of all, we see the English
pushing down our tariff, selling US iron low
break down our mills, and then pushing up
the price, and reGping immmenee profits while
our tariff was low.
We find the prices gradually coming down,
both of foreign and domestic articles, as COM
petition, skill, experience, nit machinery and
capital become invested in growing industries,
starting under protective tariff. Let us put
this absurdity Of tariff being necessarily so
much addition to the price in another light.
Free Traders apply it only to such manu-
factures as they wish to reduce tariff on, and
those are such as the British would control in
our markets, if possible.
Mr.. Horace Maynard, of Tennessee, aptly
said in a speech in Congress in March;
oIf this ductrine is true Of these articles, il
is true of all others; tor example OF butter,
cheese, potatoes and wheat The duty on
butter and cheese is cents per pound, on po-
tatoas % cents per bushel, and on wheat %
cents per bushel. Now, will any man be bold
enough or reckless enough to assert that the
duty of cents per pound upon the butter
enhances to the consumers by so much the
price not only Of the 6,650,0O0 pounds import
ed from Canada, but also OF the entire pro
duce of our own dairies; or thai
the like duty of 4 cents per pound Oh
cheese adds cents per pound to the consump'
tive prices of American cheese, as well as 0.
the l,500, 900 pounds imported from Canada
the l,l75,000 pounds IRON France, and the
250O00 from England; or that the duty of q
cents per bushel on wheat adds that sum, o.
any, sum, TO the price either Of American
wheat, or Of the 100000 bushels imported
from Canada; or, lastly, that the duty Of q
cents per bushel ON potatoes Is an addition o.
25 cents a bushel to our whole potato crop, a
well as of the 10000 bushels impor-ed non
Nova Scotia. The folly OF such an assertion
would be so apparent as to impose upon no
body. 1t would be subject OF universal ri
dicule."-C Cincinnati Chronicle.
There went down beneath the hail of the
needle gun and chassepot OH the field o.
Grayelotte, an Austrian prince, whose story
is as romantic and adventurous as that of any
| IniOht in Artbur's storied days This wa,