Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-07
COMMUNICATIONS,
Something about the Tariff.

Something about the Tariff.
10 the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
You will allow me to reply to your edito
} rial in your issue of the 9TH inst, am sure
because you are willing to have subject O
SO much consequence as "the tariff" discussed
} from both sides of the question
y Although I think tariff either on mate
rails to be used in manufactures, or on manu-
factured goods is very costly way of rails
ing revenue for the expenses of government
and severe burden on manufactures and or
the people, I don't object to moderate
tariff till we learn better than to have any
A tariff of ten per cent. would bring more
revenue than the present high tariff which,
while being SO oppressive, is almost entirely
prohibitory on large proportion of the arti-
cles. The result of a low tariff would be a
very much larger importation of some for
eign articles, but also a corresponding in
crease in exports which must be manufac-
tured here in order to export, for we cannot
buy unless we sell to pay for it. The nonsen-
sical talk about draining the country of its
gold is not worth considering. Gold is an
| article of produce in this country-a product
1
ported as properly as the surplus of wheat,
but is not SO likely to be exported when low
| priced raw materials enable us to export
| manufactured goods freely. When before
the tariff commission, assembled at Long
| Branch, 1 advocated a level tariff, on every
| thing, of 25 per cent. in order to reduce the
| whole protection on raw materials and that
| on manufactured goods to the same per
cent. of foreign value. High tariff cannot
be excused on the plea of necessity of tariff
| for revenue, because low tariff will bring
| more revenue than high one.
"Raw material" as usually understood,
l means an article substantially in the condi-
| ton into which crude material is put for
! transportation to the place where its condi-
| ton is to be changed by manufacturing
/ into articles fit for use of mankind. 1t is
| true, in one sense, that what is one manu-
| facturer's finished merchandise is the raw
material OF the next manufacturer in the pro-
gressive step toward complete manufacture
into the condition fit for human use or con-
sumption, and has merely been brought for
ward one more steps from the condition of
the material in its crudest form. Such arti-
cles are bar iron and steel, neither of which
are in form for human use, although step
or two on the way.
do not SO much complain that there is
tariff on bar iron and STEEL but that it is SO
excessive. The manufacturers of bar
iron and steel would not need a
protective tariff were it not that
their raw material pig iron,
also has an excessive protective tariff equal
to &c per cent, compelling them to pay for
that raw material nearly doub,e the price
that their English competitors pay. For 66
per cent. of tariff duty, freight from Eng
land, insurance, commissions and other
charges bring the actual protection to very
nearly 100 per cent, and our pig iron produ-
GERS have usually combined to keep their
prices nearly up to the cost of foreign pig
laid down in this country and duty paid
Scrap iron pays the same duty per ton that
pig iron does, monstrous tariff put on the
waste iron of the world, at the request of
the Pennsylvania iron ring, to compel New
England iron rolling mills to buy their raw
material from American furnaces at the com
bination prices, instead of using foreign
scrap.
1t may be said that pig iron is also man
ufacture in its first step forward from its raw
material, the ore. That is hardly fair
claim, because iron in the form of pig is
merely the crude metal separated by heat
from the earthly matter in which nature
placed it as iron ore in the ground. There is
no labor nor mechanical skill in the work
process. Steam power brings the ore and
coal to the mouth of the furnace and dumps
it in. The blast is made by steam power and
the metal when melted out drops down to
the bottom of the furnace by its own weight
and out on the ground into the forms called
pigs. There is some common labor about
the furnace, paid for at very low rates, and
of course superintendent and engineer for
the steam power, but the whole wages paid
to ton of pig iron is only about one-third
of the high tariff put on pig iron under the
false plea that it is to protect the labor.
But it may be said that the pig iron pro-
ducer needs protective tariff because the
ore and coal that he buys, or digs on royalty,
is protected in so high price by tariff;
and the landlord owner of the land ON which
the coal or ore is dug, on royalty being
paid therefor to him, saysthat he must have,
and he does have, high protective tariff
his coal or ore in the ground-on ore often as
high as the cost of ore in foreign countries,
dug and delivered at the vessels side. Why
must the landlord, whether mammoth cor
poration or an individual, have protective
tariff on the ore in the ground? God put it
there free and with no labor of man. He
had no protective tariff. The whole State of
Pennsylvania coal and iron lands included,
did not cost over d hundred dollars, paid in
blankets and beads at the prices of the hon
est but thrifty QuakeTs.
The whole truth can be put into a small
nutshell. A high protective tariff is put on
ores to enable the landlords to combine to-
gether, exclude foreign ores, keep prices
high and grow rich sitting in their soft
cushioned chairs, while the workingmen at
the other end of the process of manufac-
ture, and, in fact, the workingmen in all
the stages of progress to the finished goods,
are as they are; rot as bad as they might
be, but they might be in better circum-
stances than they are.
The ore and coal landlords are the bottom
mouopolists, the broad foundation step of
layers are built. Knock away the
bottom of the combined giant monopoly and
all the other steps will crumble away, not
into disaster, but into new, enduring and |
profitable life to themselves, and be a bless |
ing, instead of heavy burden now, to the |
industries of the country. When that good |
time comes the best human working force
that God and nature ever gathered together |
will send the products of our iron furnaces, |
of our rolling mills, of our foundries of our |
forges and of our factories all over the coun-
try.
Your statement that eff English steel rails |
could to day be placed in our market duty |
free not steel rail mill in this country could |
continue in operation is quite out of the |
way. The rail mills of this country sold 3d. |
900 tons of rails in Canada few months ago |
against open competition with English ma |
kers, the tariff in Canada being the same on |
English on American rails. A large steel |
manufacturer told me W1tn1n ten days that |
with free trade on iron he feared foreign |
competition with free trade in steel. Within |
eight years one of the large steel rail rolling
mill companies of the West was paid three |
hundred thousand dollars per year by the |
other mills combined for several years, to |
keep their western mill shut down and SO |
limit production and keep up prices.
Wool is raw material that grows on the |
backs of sheep with not SO much of human
labor as is required to raise wheat or corn. |
Yet the manufacturers of woolen cloth in
this country are burdened with tariff of
over fifty per cent on foreign wool, which
that much raises the cost to them of Ameri-
can wool. This high tariff was made about
eighteen years ago. The result was that /
wool raising was SO profitable, even with
negligence, that little attention was paid to
improving or keeping up the breeds
Of sheep, and the quality of the
wool deteriorated SO that, to make
the beet of woolen goods, foreign
grown wool must be imported, at |
least enough to mix with the harsher and
brittle home grown wools But the mixture
ip1 nd 10 fhafP oh