New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-04-30
PRICES IND DUTIES.

The HOrtd having charged ClaJ our pcopN
are paying $6OOO,OO0 per annum more for ther
Salt because of the duty on imported Salt
which only puts $1,176,S37 into the Treasury
leaving the rest as the profits of Syracuse and
Saginaw, we stated in reply that all the Sal
made at Syracuse and Saginaw IN 1871 trds SOLD
for LESS than tie amount so charged by I'VE
World as profit. (The Hon. George Geddes'
late State Superintendent of Salt Springs, Is
our authority for this statement)
The World meets this very blunty. 1tdoesh't
believe anything put forth by "the Syracuse
salt boilers" IMr. Geddes is no salt-boilei.l
Well, then, we will quote MIR. David A.
Wells, whose statements Tile World may
treat with moro respect. We have liz
official Report for the year 1863 issued Is
campaign document 10y The Ecening Post,
on page % of which Is table Of
prices of Turks Island Salt in this CitT
from 1sH down to 1862. The highest price
was 45 cents per bUsliel lin 1876 under duty
of 20 per cent, equal to q cents per bushel;
whereas it sold for 30i cents in 1Sil, when
free, for 20 cents in 1861, when the duty was4
cents Der bushel and for 80 to 34i cents i'll 1861,
when the duty was Gas now IS cents per
hundred pounds. This table Mr.. Wells gives
to illustrate the difficulty which often exists
"of tracing any definite or constant connec-
"tion between the prices of an imported article
"and the duties thai may be imposed upon ii.
Do you heart
The reason for this is not far to seek. We
are importing some Eight Millions of bushels
of Salt per annum, and this Salt costs say an
average of fifteen cents per bushel where
made. The World figures as though we might
quadruple the quantity at the same average
cost but we could not. Such an increased
demand would inevitably carry up the price
at Turks Island and other points of produc-
ton, Just as the price Of Iron has lately gone
up in Great Britain. Such is one of the
lessons imbeddcd in Mr.. Weiss table of the
prices of Salt.
The World stigmatizes the present duty on
Copper Give cents per pound as an unwar-
"rantablc piece of class legislation, unsuscep-
"tble of defense or apology" Gan impudent
"outrage,n &C. We think otherwise. That
duty is hardly twenty-five per cent; and why
Copper should be charged less than the aver
age rate of duty, we cannot imagine. The
Worlds attempt to excite prejudice against our
CODDer-I0lnGfS, because TWO OF JDIcc COM
panies on Lake Superior have very rich
veins and are making money, seems to us a
demagogue trick. The few owners of the
Comstock lode are making money very fast by
mining Gold and Silver; but, on broader
view, Gold and Silver cost all they come to-
SO with Copper. We have been acquainted
with Copper-mining on Lake Superior since
1916, and know that it has not repaid the
money actually invested, saying nothing of
interest or profit. A few have made by it, but
ten times the number have lost. And all the
Copper mined in the United States this year
will not return the outlay in mining it. The
country is enriched by every new industry
established in it, but those who invest money
in new pursuit seldom get it back again.
As to Coal, we have obtained from the Penn
sylvana Coal Company table Of the whole
sale prices of the several kinds of Anthracite
Coal at this port at the opening of navigation
in each of the last twenty years, from which
we give the prices of Crate Coal as follows: