Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-01-12
What a Tariff for Protection Signifies.


A tariff framed in the interest of mo-
nopolies is in direct conflict with the
welfare of the people. When law is
so framed as to increase the cost of liv-
ing by unnecessarily taxing the con-
sumner for the purpose of increasing the
gains of the producer, it becomes fla
grant wrong which the people will not
fail to condemn. 1t must be borne in
mind that tariff means tax; that just in
proportion as duties are imposed the
cost of the article is increased, and that
the consumer as certainly pays the tar
levied by the authorities. 1t is this fact
that protectionists seek by every spe-
cies of false reasoning and false state
ments to obscure. They are forever
striving to make it appear that the tariff
tax. unlike all other taxation, is a great
National blessing, and that the people
by paying $500 or S1.50 for an article
of prime necessity are better off than If
they paid 81 for it; aud this great
blessing of increased cost of living,
they contend, is of special advantage to
the laboring people. The purpose OF
having Tariff laws is to obtain revenue
with which to defray the expenses of
the Government. To regulate the tariff
for that special purpose is the demand.
There is no discussion in regard to the
necessity for such tariff. 1t secures
revenue, competition in trade, and af-
fords Incidental protection. But tariff
framed for protecting certain descrip-
tiOns of Industries secures little or no
revenue, drives away competition, adj
vances the cost of the article and taxes
the consumer for the benefit of the IA
vored manufacturer, who. under the
operation of high protective duties, Sc
cures monopoly of the business. The
duty on crockery, for example, is equiv
alent to an annual tax on the people of
Indiana in amount of not less than
$4,000. Pursuing the same line of
argument, we propose to show that the
people of Indiana are required to pay
unnecessary high prices for other arti-
cles that must be had in every fam
lily in the State. The tariff duty on
cutlery is fifty per cent, and still in
the article of table cutlery fully four
fifthS of the sales are of American
manufacture. As result of the opera
ton of the tariff, every set of knives
and forks purchased by the people of
Indiana costs them fully fifty per cent.
more than would be the case if the du-
ties were removed-that is to say, a set
of knives and forks which now cost
$3.50 could, if relieved of the tariff tax,
be purchased for 81. 1t is fair to assume
that the $4,000 families of Indiana
each purchase 50 worth of table cutlery
annually. a sum total of $4,000. OF
this amount at least 333 per cent. re-
suits from the imposition of tariff tax on
table cutlery, and since fully four-fifths
of this cutlery is of American manu-
facture. the conclusion is that the cut
lery factories of America are able to
stand alone, and no longer need protec-
ton, by which eN 'ry laboring man in
Indiana is required to pay from 81 to
$3.50 for set of knives and forks,
when but for the tariff they would not
be required to pay more than seventy
five cents or one dollar. The demand
is not to abolish the tariff on
table cutlery, but to modify it in
the interest of the Government
and the people. AS the case now
stands the tariff on cutlery amounts al
most to prohibition. The importations
of the foreign article for the year 1880
amounted to only 81, 1913, 529, and the
revenue derived was 1851, 764, equal to
one-half of the value of the importations.
What is true of table cutlery is equally
true of pocket knives, and every man in
Indiana is required to pay SO per cent.
more for his pocket-knife on account of
the tariff tax That is to say, a pocket
knife that could be sold at fifty cents,
under the tariff costs seventy-five cents,
and 1 ZOO, 900 men and boys CT the State
are required under the operation OF the
tariff to pay a fifty-cent tax on their
pocket-knives, the sum total of which
reaches an amount well calculated to
arouse reflection. These matters may
seem small to some people, and protec-
tionists may pooh-pooh, but they are
not so small as to have escaped the at
tention of monopolists, nor will they
permit the tariff on cutlery to be reduced
if they can prevent such wise legisla-
tion.-I,adianG State Sentinel.
A band of outlaws raided the town
of Bullion, in Idaho, some days ago, and