New-York tribune., 1871-06-27
BOOT AND SHOE GRIEFS.

BOOT AND SHOE CRIES.
The World-failing to correct its own unex-
cused misrepresentation that the late anti
Tariff manifesto proceeds from The Boot
and Shoe manufacturers" of New England.
! when in fact it is COuntenanCed but by mi
nOrity-esSays to restate their demand az fol-
| lows:
"The grumbers' want free materials, which will
enable them to manufacture their goods 10 to 20 per cent
cheaper, and thus give them chance TO go into the
markets Of the world and compete with foreign manu-
factures They want to get back certain export trade
which they have lost and of which H. g. seems not TO
have heard"
Comments BY The Tribune.
The chief materials" used in the American
manufacture of Boots and Shoes are now and
long have been either produced on our own
| sell or imported as raw Hides at duty Of
! barely Ten per cent. This is decidedly lower
than it would be if our Tariff were framed
with view to Revenue alone. In other words
our Boot and Shoe manufacturers are now
favored, exactly as they assume and as we
think they should be favOred-by admitting
the raw material required in their business at
a very low rate of duty when imported in its
crudest FORM and imposing higher rate on
that same material when converted by skill
and labor into a manufactured fabric The
Tariff as it is respects the fact that Boots and
Shoes may wisely be made at home; but it
further holds that Leather may also be benef
Gently produced here. The net result is the
production both of the Leather and the Boots
and Shoes required by our people on American
soil by American labor. And no other people
on earth are more abundantly or more cheaply
shod than ours. And no branch of American
industry has, throughout the last ten years,
evinced more vigorous growth or enjoyed a
more substantial prosperity than the kindred
manufactures of Leather and of Boots and
Shoes.
But The World says our Shoe bosses have
lost their export trade. That is to say: we
exported, during the three years prior to
1861, Boots and Shoes valued at $2,2G6,605,
while we have exported, during the three last
fiscal years, but to the value of 81, ,448,200;
and this their currency value.
Now it is unquestionably true that we are
not so advantageOusy situated for exporting
manufactures as we were before our great
Civil War; with Its enormous expenditures
and its vast Public Debts. These have raised
prices generally among us-notably, the price
of Labor We pay 81 so per day the year
round for farm labor thirty miles from this
City which was freely offered at 81 per day
down to 1867 and the average advance in
manufacturing and mechanical wages has been
lust about fifty per cent. We presume no ar
gument needed to prove that this advance
impedes the expectation Of American Manu-
factures.
How would you avoid itS
Suppose we try absolute Free Trade, and
pay our Debt by Direct Taxation. Gen.
Pleasonton's subordinate calls on one of the
Shoe bosses for his quota of the annual
burden-say $4,000. The Shoe boss pays it
since he must-but says, "When you call merit
"year, my shop will be just across the Canada
cline, where l am offered cheaper labor,
cheaper lumber, and taxes not one fifth so
"high SO good morningw
Who does not see that to attempt to stand
up under the unquestiOned burden of a
great Public Debt with Free Trade is a
virtual Punishment of Manufactures to lightly
taxed countriesl OF course all will not 90 ;
but the tendency to drive them out, and at all
events to prevent their increase, is unmis-
taxable.
The World, which has q thousand times
asserted or assumed that the IarlH plumbers
all other classes to enrich the manufacturers,
now sees fit TO say that
at is the duty on ne rG material that ia fleeing the
people OF the United States curtang the trade and
profits OF the manufacturers while 1t enriches ano ther
class for which The the too willing advocate
The truth is stated emphacay by the manufacturers
in this way:
The combined taxes the articles forming the materials Of
our industry yield the Government OF only s35o0OO while
they impose upon the manufactures and tar Of +laO
OO which must eventually be paid by OF these
articles
In other words tax OF As cent per capita on the
whole population exacted annually. And who gets
this revenue OF As cents from eveybodys pOcketi The
manufacturers show that government only gets about
81 cents per CAPITA and the monOpoiats leather last
ing binding, &C. get S6 cents or 10 put it In another
shape the people pay year needsssly for boots
and shoes sls 10000 which ia thus divided;
To Government. -.''''-''' f3Oup'Vp
TO twenty or thirty monopolles....-''- h60O0O
Total.