New-York tribune., 1871-01-11
THE TRUTH ABOUT SALT.


SIR: In your article cnti.icd SAT- in Tng
TRIBUNE Of the 81 inst, you say:
Tbe duty Salt bears ltte hard on ne Of the sea-
board; but have many cOmpensatoDs In the INTERIOR
we presume Salt Is supplied ut lower price from sra
cuse Saginaw, Wytheylle &c., than s would or could
be from abroad If there duty lls importation"
You concede too much TO the advocates of low
duties on foreign-produced Salt. You, on the sea
board, arc not oppressed hard borne upon by The
United States duties; the contrary you buy your
Salt for less than you did under low duties in 1850
and you buy it cheaper than you would under abso-
luto Free Trade Whyf Free Trade would drive
domestic Salt ont OF yoar market entirely and the
importer would then exact higher prices, for hs
would have TO domcstic-made Salt 10 contend for
the market with him.
This thing is perfectly understood by every ons
cOnversant with such matters. Foreign Salt IL I'M
ported ms ballast, and, If the shpowner can sell /,
after he has done with it ballast for the COS, at
the place ho put it on board ship, he he's los. no
money. In case he had no duties to bay, he could
afford to undosel domestic Salt at all tines and b.
would sell his imported Salt at lees than the cost oi
domestic Salt until he had driven al competition
out of the market and then be would rase his prics
! as high as his avarice would allow, and there keep
them-Int some competitor appeared, when "a
would for the time lower them TO point that would
compel such competitor to sell at o loss and thas
drive him out Of the market and keep him out Salt,
brought into New-OTeans as ballast has been east
into the river in times past, when too much lad
found its way into that port. In the Mississippi. il
did not lower the price of Salt then in the ma Aot
Less violent measures would prove entirely ehcCtral
in the market Of your city. they did in timo past
But the present high duties on foreign Sslt L~
opened the markets Of the seaboard to our SAT-, and
we have entered them. and by extraordinary Efforts
III 81 tl.aef irrtrtn
havo been forced to take snail profits.
In 1866, there was sent to NewYOrk City, Of Oman.
daga Salt, 1881 bushels; in 1851, li0l2cO bushesi
in 1863 13ij92O bushels; IN 1862 l,9iOSSj bushels
and in 1870, 2,OS3,l25 bushels.
| This growing competition does not suit the n'
porter; and he sees his remedy in driving on Yr~
ducers out of your city by crushing them with Free
Trade; and he sees clearly, and has very inf. con-
prehension of the whole question But is his Interest
| and that of the consumer identiCaiT There afs
three parties that have interests inyolyed-the con
sumer the producer of domestic Salt and the COM
mercial men, who wish 10 employ their ships end
capital in carrying If all these parties cannot mako
money ont of any given policy. let us see If two of
them may not, and these two by far the most i'm
portant. If the makers of our Salt aud the con-
sumers all over the country are making and sayiu:
money by the present National policy, it is not hcy
to be abandoned to enable the importers TO se rch.
Now for the proof that the consumer Of salt bone-
| fted:
Foreign Salt was imported into the United states.
in 1860 i'm round numbers 100000 of bushes and
| in 1870, 49, 10000 bushels.
In 1SG0 there domestic Salt for sale IN your afy:
but fureign-produced Salt sold for p cents per
bushel in money as good az gold.
In 1870, both foreign and domestic Salt sold in
New-York at 20 cents in gcld and in currency az s
than Salt sold for in 1850 in gold SO it appears that
the consumer buys for less in your city Than he did
before the Onondaga Salt went into your market.
! Can any reasonable man suppose that, ii Our
| 100000 bushels were to be withdrawn from your
market, the importers of Salt would not go back to
| their old prices, and even to higher onesf
But there is still another party to this question
the Treasury of the United States. Let Us see how
this fourth interest is secured BY the present Iai
| laws.
Importations have risen, in the ten years from 10
to 1870 nearly 100000 of bushels per annum in sps
Of high dutes and the duties paid in 1850 into The
National Treasury amounted to only S2l4,G'0. In
1870, they amounted to G1,3)0,000, gain Of nearly
$1,1OO,OOO.
do not suppose that it Is necessary for me 20 try
to prove that the makers of Salt at the Onondaga
Salt Springs have been benefited by the possibility
! that has been given them of entering into your
markets with their 100000 bushels year. and
offering their product to your consumers at Les
than the importers had before supplied you.
This 100000 bushels that you have taken, though
at very low price, has enabled our manufacturers
Of Salt to keep in employment great many mak' ~
of barrels; great many men mining and boating
coal great many salt-bolers a great many canal
boats TO take this Salt to you and generally industry
in all its branches, from the coal mines of Pennsyl
vania to the forests of "John Browns Tract" aud
the boatmen oil along the canal and Hudson River;
the stevedores and warehousemen on your wharyeS.
Who has been HURT Certainly not the men vino
sold us 10000 tuns of coal in 1862 certainly not ts
Treasury of the State of New-York, into which tho
salt manufacturers paid that year S109CiS for canal
tolls on salt, coal, and materials for barrels.
Suppose the Tariff to be materially reduced
thereby lessening the cost to the importer Of fore
produced salt so as to enable him to drive our salt
makers away from tho seaboard, and place them
where they were in 1860 The profits now realized
by all these branches of industry would be swept
away, and be iust what they were in lSJ0-ncthins
from tho salt business.
This is a matter of great national importance, 50
much so that the material injury Of our domestic
production Of Salt cannot be tolerated by tie States
west of us. Domestic production stimulated by tho
power to send its surplus to the seaboard, has Ie-
duced the prices in the interior markets, tia; they
are now lower than the prices of 1850, and will con-
tinue So provided reduction of the Tarih does not
again eOniine us to the interior. In loCl cat W's
worth in Cleveland Ohio, per measured bnshel IN
gold 40 cents; in 1870, so S5 cents in Toledo, IN
1850 40 cents in 1870 % Is cents Detroit, IN leO,
Al cents; in 1870, 50 As cents; Chicago, in lsGl ~
cents in 1870 81 cents and in Boston, the other ex'
treme of the market it worth, in lSdo p cents.
and in 1870, % cents
Before such FACTS. it appears to me that all heo"