Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1882-10-05
wnAT Is our TAaIFFf
Tho whole IhIne In 3. nut SMELL.

The Whole ThIne In .. hvt shell.
Our tariff is system OF duties paid at
ouncustom houses in money, on goods
brought into the country from foreign
countries.
The objects II the tariff are two fold.
l. One object Is to raise money 70
carry on our government. This is a good
object.
9. The second object is TO keep out of
our country certain foreign goods, so as
to induce men to make them in this coun-
try. Let US see in what way this object
is attained, and whether the result is
good or bad for the American farmer.
or course, our people who want Ger.
tain kind Of goods, must either buy them
abroad or make them at home; and it is
an inducement to make and sell them
here, IL the goods brought in from abroad
are taxed by duties, while the goods
made here are not taxed. This is sim.
pie statement Of what is called the doc
trine of protection of home industry. To
change that statement little, the tariff
duties which keep out, or tend to keep
out foreign goods, allow our manufac-
turers to sell their goods without foreign
competition, and, therefore, at higher
prices; and if the manufacturers can get
higher prices from our people, they will,
of coarse, be willing to make goods for
which higher prices are to be paid.
Now. who gets the benefit, and who
suffers 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 suff-
ers the harm is the buyer of the high.
priced goods. Such man is the farmer.
Let us give very simple example. A
pocket knife could be brought over from
Sheffield, in England, and sold in Chica-
go, if there was no tariff tax, for, say 35
cents. But the importer finds that at
the port of New York he must pay tar
iff duty on the knife of, say, Is cents.
Therefore, to make profit, the knife
must evidently sell for IS cents, plus Is
cents. that is to say so cents when it
reaches Chicago. Now, seeing this, the
American maker of pocket knives, says
to himself; can make my knife at cost
of 35 cents. I will then take my knife to
Chicago, and there is a tariff tax of Is
cents on the Sheffield knife, but not on
mine; I can sell my knife for % cents
and still make profit. He does so, and
the farmer who wants to buy knife at
Chicago finds that he must do one of
two things, either buy the Sheffield knife
for 80 cents or the American knife for
45 cents. In the first case, the tariff has
made the farmer pay 10 cents extra.
which has gone to support the govern
ment; in the second case, the farmer has
paid 10 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 15 cents and compete
with the American knife maker, who
pays no tax at all. So he imports few or
none of the Sheffield knives, and the
American 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 exact.
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 his farm and household.
His hoe costs him thirty per cent. more
than it should, his plow fifteen per cent.
more, the paint for his house twenty-five
per cent. more, the clothing for himself
and family twenty, thirty or forty per
cent. more. Everything is dearer which
he has to buy. while the wheat which he
sells is not advanced in price one penny.
For his wheat is not and can not be
protected. The price of grain is fixed
in the worlds market and cannot be
ruled by the tariff of any particular
country.
For whose benefit, then, is the tariff of
this country maintained? The manufac-
turers may profit by such an unjust ar
rangement, but certainly the farmer
does not. He is taxed that others may
grow rich.
This is the whole tariff question in
nutshell, SO far as it bears upon our far
mers. Is it not about time that the
farmer cracked the nut, and got his fair
share of the kernel?
WE hope the Republicans will keep on
bringing Foster here every year. He
makes Democratic votes every time.