Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-02-17
THERE WOULD STILL BE A BAR.
Deep Water Would be of Little use with
Our Present Tariff.

DESIsoN, Ten, Feb. Is.
TO the Editor Of the Gazette.
The present discussion of "the
deep water question: brings
to my mind few pertinent facts In
regard to our present unjust tariff, which
facts seem to bear directly ON the ques-
ton at issue:
First: | would ask our "Protectionist"
friends why the people of Texas are
making such strenuous efforts to secure q
harbor on the coast2 The answer, of
course, will come, "why, you simpleton,
so that commerce may be attracted to our
shores" But to this let me reply You
have by your own acts built up barrier
around the coast of Texas which
is equaled by no obstruction
placed by nature. You have
prohibited as far as you were able
the commerce of the world entering the
United States by means of tariff which
aims to 'protect" the labor of America,
but which does nothing of the sort.
You have erected barricade of taxes
ranging from 30 to 200 per cent, which
prevents our trading with the nations of
the world. We cannot sell because we
cannot buy. All sales are but exchange
of commodities, and now Messrs. "Pro-
tectionists," let me ask you what has
been the result of your mountain of
idiocy, termed ''protectve tariff as
applied to Texas alone? 1t has come
to this Foreign NATIONS have
| turned their attention elsewhere
| in their pursuit of cotton and
wheat, and are commencing to be sup
piled from the wheat fields of India and
Australia, and the cotton districts of the
Nile. The nations of the world will buy
only OF those countries with which thew
can trade. Already the effects of these
newly developed sources of the wheat
and cotton supply are having their effect
on these Texan products. The price of
wheat and cotton are as low rs they have
been for years, with no prospect of an
advance. In recent number of the New
York Nation appears this statement:
/ 1--WE have to compete with these
countries in the production of wheat and
/ cotton. There is no getting around that
fact. II they can furnish these staples
cheaper than we can, they will
take the market away from us.
There is no way under heaven to recover
our superiority, If we have lost it, or to
retain it il we have not yet lost it, but to
sell at lower prices. This, we are told,
cannot be done because the farmers and
planters are making no profit now, are
hardly getting back the cost of produc-
ton, and, in many cases, not even that.
But there Is one way to sell at lower
prices, ana that is to repeal the export
duty OF 80 per cent. on wheat and cot
ton But there are no export duties,
says some startled farmer, planter or
shlpper--the constitution expressly for
Z hiIa pNnnrt flIyffaS I,,A -
difference between paying $50 per cent.
on what you send abroad and paying
SO per cent. on what YOU get in ex
change? Suppose A and b are TRADING
wheat for cloth. A gives b bushel of
wheat for yard of cloth. Somebody
intercepts the cloth and cuts off one-third
OF II, so that 4 only gets two.thirds
OF yard. The result is the same no
though one-third OF bushel of wheat
had been taken from him, and his wheat
lett alone. The principle holds good as
to al. our exports, whether of arricul-
ture or manufacture, of forests or OF
mines. There is, as to the nation at
large, an export duty averaging 30 per
cent, This IS the average rate of duty ON
all imports, free and dutiable, taken TO-
Sether. 1t Is the third part taken of the
pay we get for our exports, and is there.
fore the same thing as third taken of
the value of the exports. BY abolishinn
the export tax we can at once add 80 per
cent, To our power of competing with the
foreign producers of wheat, cotton.
petroleum, tobacco and everything else y
Now, in view of all these facts, ask In
all candor of what use would deep water
be while we still have ''baru of such
great magnitude as the present tariff
places before each harbor In the Union !?
/ a. =