Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-06-01
The Democrats Correspondent
"M." and His Free Trade
Fallacies.

crat, came again last week IN de- !
tense Of Free Trade. Though he !
writes a lengthy article, he says but |
little of value, and leaves unanswered |
all of the arguments offered in the
HERALD of May 18th, and thinks to
get rid of our conclusions by calling
our defense of the tariff, SILLY twad-
de-" yet in another place he says:
'.The HERALD's article was as forcible and lOgi-
cal throughout as any have ever seen in defense
OF high protection"
Now there IS but one point sought
to be established in Ms. communcia-
ton, and that is that the purchaser
of a protected article, pays a price
equal to the full value of that article
and the tariff duty besides. To illus
trate: There is a duty of five cents
per yard on calico. Now you can
buy prints for five cents per yard
If Ms. theory is correct, you would
have to pay what the calico is worth
Is cents) and the five cents duty be-
sides or ten cents per yard. Not
only is the utter fallacy Of Ms. posi-
ton shown In this illustration, but
might be in hundreds of other cases.
The HERALD talks facts, while M. pro-
mulgates a theory-plausable at first
sight but very erroneous. To illus
trate his position, NJ prints table in
which he gives the supposed cost of a
cotton suit which he says is actually
worth but 1915, but owing to the tar
iff on the various articles, the pur-
chaser has to pay $2LO5 for it, or
S12.45 for the suit and $6.65 duty.
The cotton socks he lists at so cents
per pair. Now a cheap cotton suit
may be sold at Kirwin where NJ re-
sides, for 2105 including cotton socks
for So cents, but Phillipsburg mer-
chants sell complete cotton suits for
about the amount of the tariff duty
or about $500 Cotton socks per
pair in Phillipsburg can be purchased
in any quantity from 5 to 10 cents
per pair though the tariff duty on
them, Nj. says is Is cents per pair
In our article May II, we gave sta
tistics that established beyond &
doubt the utter fallacy of Ms. posi-
ton, and showed him that in 1860 We
had a tariff for revenue only and yet
nearly every manufactured article
then, was higher than now. Rail
road iron was $166 per ton. A tariff
of Sl7. per ton was levied upon for
eign iron, and that stimulated Amer.
lean capitalists to build more ROLLINS
mills, and soon we had enough of the
homemade article to create lively
competition at home and the price Of
railroad iron went down as low a
$28. per ton. The weakness of Ms
position may be seen by supposin.
that Congress would pass a law for
bidding foreign railroad iron from
being sold in this country unless tn
foreigner pays $1,000 dollars per to-
for the privilege of competing in on
market According to Ms. theor,
railroad iron would Immediately g,
up to a price equal to the presen
price and the duty added, or abou
STOPS. per ton. The. great mistak
that NJ. and the Free Traders make
IS IN forgetting that home competition
almost entirely regulates the price 0
a manufactured article.
If the county commissioners o
Phillips county should assess a dut
Of SIO0 against every newspaper no
printed in this county for the priv
ilege of getting subscribers here, doe
M. suppose that every paper printe,
IN the county would charge its sub
scribers what their papers are wOrtl
and the tariff of SLOO besides, o
$3.50 per year? No, the sharp com
petition among the Phillips count
papers would keep the price down
about what it is now, regardless o
the restriction put upon papers pub
hshed out side Of the county's limits.
The Free Trader entirely ignore
home competition as a means Of keep
ing down the price, and there is wber
they make their egregious blundel
Mr.. M. referring to his suit of clOthe
again offers this as a clincher. II
says:
Suppose that a suit OF clothes is on board shi
sailing to this country. You can purchase it O
board the vessel just before it arrives in port b,
fore the custom officers inspection for IS 65 le.
than after the duty has been paid on the cargo.