The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-11-09
Rou1 ISLAND : MERCER CO., 3. .
Wednesday. November 9. 1873.
What is our tariff a?

| What is our tariff 4?
| Our tariff is system of duties paid at
our Custom Houses in money on goods
brought into the country from foreign
countries.
The objects Of the tariff are twofold.
| a. One object is to raise money to
carry on our government. This is good
object.
(2) Theesecond object is to keep out of
our country certain foreign goods, so as to
induce men to make them in this country.
Let us see in what way this object is at
tanned, and whether the result is good or
bad for the American farmer
Of course, our people who want certain
| kind of goods must either buy them abroad
or make them at home. and it is an induce
ment to make and sell them here, if the
goods brought in from abroad are taxed
/ by duties, while the goods made here are
not taxed. This is simple statement of
what is called the doctrine of protection of
home industry. To change that statement
little, the tariff duties which keep out
foreign goods. allow our manufacturers TO
sell their goods without foreign competi-
ton, and, therefore, at higher prices; and
if the manufacturers can get eigher prices
from our people, they will, of course be
willing to make the goods for which high
prices are to be paid.
Now, who gets the benefit, and who suf-
fers the harm of these high prices? The
man who gets the benefit is surely the
maker of the goods, who sells them at the
high price; and the man who suffers the
harm is the buyer of the high priced goods.
Such man is the farmer
Let us give very simple example. A
pocketknife could be brought over from
Sheffield, in England, and sold in Chicago,
if there was no tariff tax, for, say, thirty
five cents. But the importer finds that at
the port of New York he must pay tar
i'll duty on the knife of, say, fifteen cents,
Therefore, to make profit, a knife must
evidently sell for thirty-five cents, plus
fifteen cents, that is to say, fifty cents.
when it reaches Chicago. Now, seeing
this, the American maker of pocket-knives
says to himself: can make my knife at a
cost of thirty-dve cents. will then take
my knife to Chicago, and as there is a
tariff tax of fifteen cents on the Sheffle Id
knife, but not on mine, / can sell
my knife for forty-five cents, and still
make a profit He does so, and the
farmer who wants to buy knife at Chi
cago finds that he must do one of the two
things, either buy the Sheffield knife for
so cents or the American knife for forty
five cents. In the first case, the tariff has
made the farmer pay fifteen cents extra,
which has gone to support the govern
ment; in the second case, the farmer has
paid ten cents extra, which goes into the |
pocket of the maker of the American |
knife.
But, presently, the man who brought |
over the Sheffield knife finds that he can
not pay the tax of fifteen cents and COM
pete with the American knife maker, who /
pays no tax at all So he imports few or
none of the Sheffield knives, and the Amer
lean maker is left with clear field. The
government is consequently deprived of
revenue. and the poor farmer must pay
what prices the American knife maker
chooses to enact.
: Now, let the farmer reflect that this
American knife, which he has paid so high
and unnecessary price for, is the symbol
Of almost all the goods which he buys for
,io 70 RIM onI f,o31coJ1aId
His hoe costs him thirty per cent. more
han it should. the paint for his house
per cent. more, the clothing for
himself and family twenty, thirty or forty
,er cent. more. Everything is dearer