The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-03-29
That Thriving Tariff.

Louisvln Courier Journal.
While some manufacturers are
shutting down on account Of the
over-production brought about by
high tariff, there are others who are
piling up in their Golfers vast and
continuous revenue of the peoples
money.
Not long ago, a gentleman con-
nected with one of the leading job
bing hardware houses in the coun-
try, went to Mexico to work up a
trade. He returned disguised and
indignant, having learned to his as
constituent, that the manufacturers
of hardware, in the Unired States,
can afford to make it a practice to
sell their goods to Mexican wholesale
and retail dealers, from 40 to so per
cent. cheaper than the largest cash
jobber in this country can buy them
for. In other words, our manufac-
lures of hardware, who claim they
could not live were it not for the
enormous protection given them by
the government, can actually make
their goods and send them to another
country 40 per cent. cheaper than
their regular standard prices to the
home trade.
Let the consumer in the United
States consider what an outrage is a
tariff that makes this possible. He
must pay two prices for his hard
ware in order to shut the foreign
manufacturer from the market and
give the home manufacturer a chance
to flourish. The tax is taken from
the consumers pocket and goes into
that of the manufacturer, not only
giving him monopoly in his bust
ness but paying him thousands of
dollars for which he returns in val
ue absolutely nothing. And yet
this very manufacturer refuses to
sell his goods to the consumer who
is taxed to subsidize him at anything
like the prices at which he supplies
them for foreigners. He can afford
to sell them in Mexico from 40 to so
per cent. cheaper than he sells them
here. The larger per cent. is plain
Iy, then, clear bonus, of which
neither his factory, worBmen nor the
national treasury receive one cent.
The gentleman from whom we get
these facts is in every way response
bic for what he says. He has been
in the business for fifteen years and
knows it in all its branches To any
one inclined to question his figures,
he offers to send list of the leading
merchants in Mexico who will corrob-
crate them, and besides, he has pos
session of the export" list and stan
dard home list of several of the
eastern manufacturers which he is
ready to verify.
Specifications are not wanting.
The eastern manufacturer sells a
gross Of one inch No. 10 American
screws to the United States jobber
for 22-l-2 cents; he sells them to the
foreign jobber for 8-1-4 cents-or
$22.5O per hundred gross at home
and 1925 for the same amount
abroad.
He sells the domestic jobber one
dozen eight ounce American cut
tacks for 50 cents; he sells them to
the foreign jobber for % cents?
He sells the domestic jobber till
locks at $I.29 per dozen; he sells
them to the foreigner at y cents per
dozen. He sells the domestic jobber
timed tacks at 31-I-2 cents per
dozen; he sells them to the foreigner
at 10 cents per dozen.
He sells the foreign jobbor table
cutlery 81 gross cheaper than to
the home buyer.
And so on down the list.
What need is there to say more?
These figures carry their own force.
That the American people have not
rebelled and cast off such legal "pro-
tective" oppression as makes such
figures possible is due only to the
fact that they have not yet under
stood the extent to which they are
victimized.
The Union street railway line of