New-York tribune., 1884-03-22
a FREE TR1DBEs CHOICE.
CONSUMER OPPOSES CHANGE OF TARIFF


HOW YosrERED INDUSTRIES MAKE CHEAPER GOODS.
70 fAs Edstor Of The Tribune.
SIR, "To suppose that protection ever made any.
thing cheaper is tho height Of folly said membes
of Congress- Hearing such an assertion sensible
man looks about him. He sees the carpet on bic
floor the screws that hold his table together, the
knife that be carries IN his pocket, or tho wstok
that shows him the time. and he reasons that ma
who are afraid Of the truth cannot have good
cause. think great reason why free trade ideas
have made little progress Is that shallow advocated
in sheer moral cowardce, have not dared to admit
that protective duties ever do any good. To build
up new industry in this country may or may not
cost than it is worth. But nobody can deny
that IL is q good thing; 1t gives new work to labor.
creates larger home market for products, and adds
whatever the new industry produces to the pre-
vious supply of human wants.
The truth is that in many cases, the building-up
Of new Industries here has made things cheaper all
over the world. A reasoning man would infer thas
this must be So Price reflects the relation between
demand and supply. If ffty millions OF people
cease to consume an article which others produce
the price falls It Is the IT, instead OF not CON-
suming at all. they supply what they need them
selves. Whether they do 1t at loss or not, the
effect il Just the same upon prices elsewhere Ihm
country uses onethird Of all the steel made In the
world When we made scarcely any, prices were
high now we make nearly as much as we consume.
and prices everywhere are low. Outside OF us there
are left three tons to be sold for every two tons re
quired, and the seller, therefore has to take the
lowest possible price. Steel rails cost $42 30 In
England in 1876 They now cost $34 here and
500 so In England. There is more steel to supply
human wants and therefore q lower price. II mat
ters not that we are paying more than is paid
abroad. The question for consumers is whether We
pay as much as we should have to paw if this coun-
try made none. To me it seems very clear that wc
do not.
That-protection does stimulate the production OF
some things is as certain as II is that more cloth
was made in the Colonies after our ancestors Of
fered bounty for every yard produced whether
IL paws. on the whole 10 get things produced BY
paving bounties or enacting protective tariffs, do
not choose to argue now. Be the cost more or less
we have had the thing done. The man who denies
that protective duties have built up new in
dustries here, that they have ever cheapened
anything belongs to- the class OF whom II was said'
"God grant me fools for foes"
A few days ago Powers & Weightman's great
chemical works at Philadelphia burned down.
Instantly the foreign manufacturers of quinine adj
vanced the price one-thrd. 1t will not be pro-
tended that, without period of defensive duties.
this manufacture could have been 50 established
here as to meet competition equal terms at last
Nor can it be denied that il did come TO affect
the price all over the world This country con-
sumes about one-third of all the quinine made; IL
the stoppage of one house puts up the price 80 l3
per cent. what should we have to pay if there were
no works here to supply the demandf
recent telegram mentioned large shipment Of
cotton goods to India by Massachusetts, company.
Then the price even IN India, must be TO some ex-
tent affected by that manufacture here. Yet there
have been times when foreI gn rivals could have de-
strOyed It, by emptying here their surplus products
but for the existence of defensive duties. The fact
Is that Manchester has begun TO initiate American
trademarks on cottons, In order TO keep It's trade
Just as Sheffield after trying in vain for years u
break down our manufacture OF cutlery, had 70
sion of dynamite in London brought out the fact
that American clocks can be bought In nearly gu
English towns" American watches are pougnt y
cannot afford to own watches of their own make.
British company buys in this country the costly
%Sfhn'fS an% Manitoba S5 It's farmers Sia threaten e
separate from Canada unless allowed to buy cheap
implements from this country. Within q month We
coal and salt to Canada in short, neither one letter
nor twenty would suffice to name the industries
which have been so fostered here, and have so fsr
eheapened products that they are now able to sell
The point here touched is vital in all discussion Of
the tariff If industries have been so fostered that
they supply the consumption OF this great Nation,
the mere withdrawal OF that demand must have
made prices lower elsewhere. And If our products
are so cheap that in spite of this part u them can
be sold abroad, there is conclusive proof that the
fostered industry has brought us some return In
cheaper goods And finally If that be doubtful. we
have to ask what the products would cost us If the
works we have were closed, and the American de-
mand had to be supplied by foreign markets. In
1880 only oneslxth of our supply of steel rails was
drawn from abroad, and yet the demand put up the
price In England to $52 80, and here to YS5. Now
British mills are at the verge of ruin and are selling
at $22 so, because we are buying no longer VINO
can guess where the price would go II the whole
consumption of this country had to be supplied by
foreign millsf EDAx.
Nec- York, March 81, 1884.
MUSIC,