The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-01-22
PROTECTION AGAIN.
A Chapter About the Wool
Industry.
STERN FACTS AND FIGURES
Economies for the Use Of Wool
Growers and Others = Does
PrOtecLion Protect?
TERN FACTS AND FIGURES
BY ]. b. PAUL.

In last SUNDAYS Tribune a letter
from Mr.. Crane appeared, in which the
gentleman endesvors TO reply to my
review of his first article; he makes no
an wer to my argument, nor does hs
attempt any explanation rrefutation
of the statistics l presen ted, but claims
that 1 misquoted hiur, arraigned him
personally, etc. Then he proceeds to
attack me, mentioning my name
fifteen times in three -fourths of a
column, saying that | am prevari
Gator, "a SHINING light in Neas. and
in inuatlng that lawful tIEsEse} am q
descendant of Abr=silaul.zzS.e concludes
this remarkable de1ense II the tariff on
wool by offering to fill me full of wool
and mutt n, if [ will only grasp the
opportunity, discard politics and the
free trade party, and work for Utah.
Now, it is Just because am working
for Utah that | reviewed bis article,
and because | prefer 10 grasp the sltua-
ton rather than the opportunity, ]
must refuse to discard truth and the
common welfare at the bidding of any
selfish. private interests. Therefore,
shall pass over the offensive and
ludcrous parts of the gentle s letter
and review such portions OF IL as have
| auy immediate bearing on the subject
under discussion.
First, he again with unblushing ig-
norance, says the tariff is paid oy the
foreigners tor the privilege of compel
ing with the American growers, and
proves it (as he supposes) by quoting
my words that the duties are paid BY
th. importer" Well. who is the i'm
porter2 He is the'Amei lean merchant;
he pays the tax. and charges his cur
| toners the same amount more for the
goods. Let MIR. Crane import SOM
article on which there is any protective
tariff, and he will speedily discover
who pays the tax.
|. L would be a gloriou thing if VI
cou d get foreigners 20 pay our taxes.
We wouldn't care if the treasury die
run over; we should abolish our OWE
| taxes, and make foreigners -uep 1rt our'
| gore nment by taxing their goods
| Certainly, the attention of statesmen
| should be directed to this great ant
| purely original discovery made by
Crane, that they may llgrren our our
| rs of taxation by taxing Foreigners
Further on he-says The great delu
sion OF free ira q Is, that Whenever ii
| tax is put on an article, the CO nsumer
has to pay that tax himself, That de-
ponds on what the article Is. Tea, for
instance: if te4 were taxed, WE woulu
have to pay 1t, because We grow 10
te;, .lsr a- it - -
When had read this far, I expected
| the gentlt man to name some article on
which we do not pay the tax; wool for
instance, for we 40 grow that article.
l n
| tioning any imported article on which
we do not pay the tax There is no
srch article. WeRchailenge, not,only
! Mr.. Crane, bat he whole school of Pro-
| t. ctionists TO name a slrgle imported
! article onswt fch the consumers do. not
| pae the tax. He supposes that if We
were only to grow tea, we should have
no tax to pay on the tea we i'm portl
Then let US at once begin to grow tea
but we must first ascertain how much
pro eCtive tar # uust be put on tea for
that purpose
Since Ghinamen WORK at taa culture
for ce, t day, While our ID borers ge.
S1.50 day, tariff Of thirty times the
present pricerOf tea would overcome
this difference and we could protital ly
grow that article here. he price of q
package OF tea that now costs 30 cents
woulo then be So; we should have q
great tea industry, and no tnG to pny,
provided we could raise ali the tea we
used.
But if the consumer objected that
he now pays what seems to him
a tax OF $50 on each package of tea he
uses, we could tell him that the China
men pay that tax, because we now grow
| the tea ourselves. If this did not
silence him we could tell him further,
using Mr.. Cranes very words: IF you
want cheapness, go to Ireland. E.
Cheapness is not sign of prosperity, it
is the cry of the pauper. Cheap
ness means low wages; dearness means
high wages. Cheapness and misery,
dearness and prosperity. go hand in
hsnd.p Then, the consumer would
think of the early days in Utah and
| wonder why dearness did not produce
prosperity in those times Of starvation.
suspect that what my opponent
wanted to say land I am perfectly
willing to say it for him) is that the
protective duty does not necessarily
cause the price OF the protected article
| to rise to the full extent of the duty.
This Is. OF course, the object of the
tariff, but it usually fails even in this.
| moner grades of wool are raised in this
country With comparative ease. The
duty on them is almost prohibitory, yet
the price of the home product is not
| higher by the full extent of the duty.
Indeed, the price of the home grown
wool is so low that 1t is pointed to with,
pride by protectionists as result of
protection. If the tariff acts in this
way, then why have tariff Its prin-
oipal junction is to maintain high
prices, and I addHce the following
schedule Of. prices prices under - al the tariff
refutation Of the faifacy that the tariff
has ever benefited the wool growers.
The table gives the average price of
| wool in Boston during the lastssixty
Is2k .,7ocF 1856. !. /. l.! .soc
| 2s26 I "a. :. I60c 1857. ~ Soc