Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-06-29
PIoAYUNE sopuIsrRY.

The New Orleans Picayune attempted on
Sunday TO prove the strange proposition that
incre asiDg the prime cost of an article does
Picdyune does not present it's assertion in this
plain, clear guise. If it did SO, the express
sion of The proposition ould, as a rule, be
its refutation. No; it sweetens the dose 30
as to disguise its taste, and confuse the judg
ments of those whom it is desired shall
swallow it. The correctness or incorrectness
of an assertion may often be shown with
more certainty B., the nature of the argu
ment used than oy the individual argu-
ments themselves. Judged by their nature,
the arguments of the Picayune are valueless
except in 30 far ss they expose The Picaytne's
estim ate OF the intelligence OF those TO wi ON
its sephistical arguments are offered as sound
and trustworthy. The swettening employed
to disguise the real taste OF the Picaprns's
Sunday dose is sugar, whose taste can cover
anything to the palate of the Louisiana
| sugar interest. That paper asserts that were
the tax on sugar abolished, "in reality
| the people would continue 10 pay the
same prices Tor a. al now" 1t states that in
1875 the sugar duty was raised twenty-five
per cent, yet in that year sugar sold lower
than in the year before; but that bare fact
does not prove that increasing the duty is
not means Of increasing the price. To
prove that, it is required to chow that no
tempoi airy circumstances had interfered to
prevent what was sure 10 be the 6ual effect
Of the advance of duties taking place at
once. For instance, if a perishable article
and sugar is perish able-bs grown for
certain market, and by the time the market
can be reached an extra tax is put upon it,
the merchandise must be sold, even at q
lo.s, when that loss would be less than
would be incurred by taking it back or al
lowing it to perish. We sac by this possible
instance that the statement Of fact doe 8 not
prove that fact 10 be the effect of an alleged
special cause, when other cluses exist rs
| equally or more likely to have produced it,
| The alleged proof, as stated by the Pic1yune,
| is therefore no proof at all. This way of
copying some fact from official report, and
alleging as its cause such an antecedent as it
| suits the COPPER TO present, and then demau
ing belief for the allegation because the
statement copied is true, is trick the pro-
teetionists continually resort TO, and resort
to trick shows that sound argument is
| is wanting, and that truth is not the Object
sought for by the sophisiicator. Suppose
we grow a large amount of wheat iu the
United States for the English market, and by
the Time it is reaped the English should put
| twenty-five per cent. duty upon it, we
| should have to sell at loss, rather than lose
the entire value. La the same way other cir
cumstances may step in that may compel
sales at los-, but id the long run, other
things being equal, increased prime cost must
bring increase of selling price, or trade must
b. abandoned 1t lie, therefore, in the case cited
by the Picayune not evident that the foreign
producers permanently bear the whole in
crease OF tariff. But even permanently
lower prices may follow an increase OF tax,
as when by invention introducing the use of
machinery, or other ways, the prime cost of
producing the article is decreased more than
the tax upon it is increased. la short, to
prove the influence of tax upon the price
| of given commodity, the results Of o,htr
| causes acting upon the value Of
same material at the same time must
be eliminated. The Picayine has not m ade
that elimination in the instances it
refers TO, therefore the inferencss it draws
are fallacious and worthless. The Picayune
itself introduces case in point, as follows:
"Lsst March we reduced the tariff on sugar
from 2.l84 on the lowest grade of dry sugar
to LAO, an extreme reduction of less than
seventy-nine cents per 100 pounds, and an
average reduction on imported grades OF
much less, and in less than thirty-si hours
after the passage of the bill the foreign
price of Cuban sugars advanced from three
TO five mills per pound under a rushing I'M
poristion." OF course it did, and if Cuba
will next week reduce the duty on American
6oar wheat will advance in price here. The
reason lie plain, the reduction of duty in
creases the probable demand for the article,
and an advance comes upon the stock
which was produced when the new
opening to demant did not exist. 10
while the means OF meeting the new
demand adjusted according to its ex-
tent and, as far as the change of tax has af-
fected II, the market price returns to IT'S nor
NAL condition. We never take up a pro-
tectionist publication that does not contain,
at some time or other, the fallacy we have
here laid bare. The advocates of tariff re.
form cannot continually be refuting indi-
vidual instances OF it, but the reader may
always be able 10 do il himself if he will re-
member, when he sees a statement drawn
from an official source followed by protec-
ZIONIST assertion respecting the statement,
that while the statement itself may be in
conference.-the, the assertion made respecting
it may be as erroneous and sophisticai as is
here shown to be the case in the article in
last Sundays New Orleans Pcdyine.