Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-05-07
ENRICHING THE .MANUFACTUR-
ERS.


tive Tariff is upon the South in thu
matter OF cotton ties alone. The cot.
ton growers each year pay to six man
utacturers OF ties some hundreds O
thousands more than they would have
to pay for the same article manufac
tured abroad, yet they are not salts
fed.
When we come to recapitulate, the
many articles on which the neople
have to pay bonus to the compare
tive few Eastern and Northern manu-
facturers, the fact becomes apparent
that the tillers of the soil are the
beasts of burthen of the favored mo.
nopolists of this country.
While raw sugars from Havana are
admitted, free of duty, through the
ports OF the Pacific, and for very
~
small one from the West Indies, the
sugar refners are protected by high
tariff in manufacturing these raw su-
ears into crushed, TO the detriment of
the frst-class article produced by our
mills.
Yet, We have self-styled progress
sive men who tell us that the pro-
tective tariff of the Republican party
is just the thing to be maintained.
1t is apparent that the eyes of the
people are being opened Oh this i'm
portant question, and that the Dem
ocratic idea Of "a tariff for Revenue
only is the one which the men are
going to follow up, who want to ex
tficate the country, out of the bands
OF the insatiate monopolists.
Import duties should be imposed
upon few articles only, so that the
manufacturers will be compelled to
aid i'll extending our commerce all
over the world, instead of riding to
death, almost, the agriculturists of
tue South and West,
The following extract will give an
insight into the question at issue
There are only six OF seven manu-
factories of iron cotton ties in this
country-twol III Ohio and the Others
in Pennsylvania, the largest being in
Pittsburg. These ties are made of
hoop-iron, but as they are a special
fabric with peculiar fastening, and
are made, not in the usual form Of
hoop iron, but in the form of ties, the
treasury department very properly
distinguishes between them and hoop
iron, and decides that the duty on the
latter does not apply to the former.
1t makes the duty Oh ties IS per cent
ad yalorem, while the duty on hoop
iron in y cents a pound. The old
method of tying cotton bales with
hemp rope has been discarded, and
the cheaper and better iron ties are
now employed exclusively, and it TO-
quires about 100000 bundles of
them year to supply the planters.
The question whether these ties shall |
be subject TO duty Of IS per cent ad |
yalorem as a special fabric, or be
classed as hoop and iron and made to
pay L cents pound twice as great
a rate as the other-involves about
S6')O,O00 a year; and the point at is
sue, next to the proper construction
OF the law, is whether the half dozen
hoop-lron manufacturers in Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio shall be allowed to
extort this extra amount of money
from the cotton raisers of the South.
or not. The manufacturers pretend
that the treasury ruling is a great in
justice to them, inst as the new Eng
land manufacturers Of knit goods
pretend that similar ruling on
these goods is very injurious to
their vocation. But, suppose the
treasury shall alter its ruling and
decide that cotton ties shall pay
a duty of Que and half cents q
roundabout 50 per cent ad valo-
rem-would not this be far greater
injustice to the cotton planters, who
buy and use these ties The duty of
i1c a pound, which the manufactu-
rers demand, would cost the planter
100000 year. II would be a pro
hibitory duty; it would prevent ties
from being imported and give to the
half-dozen home manufactures a mo-
nopoly of the market with power to
make their own prices. 1t would
In short, deprive the government
OF the revenue it now receives on
imported ties and place the planters
at the mercy Of the half-dozen COM
b!ned manufacturers i'll two States.
Yet these manufacturers have the eff
trontery to say that ruling which
prevents them from robhino cottnn