Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-08-02
Prices Under a Protective Tariff.

The attorneys for free trade, who seek
TO create prejudice against the policy OF
protection by charging that it enhances
the cost to consumers, can best be met by
comparison of prices of few articles
in common use.
In 1860, salt, then on the free list, sold
to consumers at an average price of So
per barrel. The tariff on salt in barrels
is now II cents per hundred pounds Tor
say 334 cents per barreD, and the aver
age price is not more than half that of
1860. As salt has been made the subject
of special attack, it may be well to as
certain Just how much of the present
selling price goes to the manufacturer,
against whom it is sought to create pre-
iudice. In 1887, at the works in Michi-
gan, salt sold for 60 cents per barrel,
and of this sum 20 cents was paid to the
cooper for making the barrel. All be-
tween this price and that paid by con-
sumers went for transportation and
profits of middlemen.
The manufacture of plate glass was
established in 1866, when the foreign
made article sold for $3.50 per square
foot. The tariff on similar quality of
glass is now so cents per foot, and the
price has steadily lowered until it is now
IS cents per squire foot.
Pig iron, in 1860, sold for $22.75 per
ton. With tariff of 1912 per ton it
sells for S1S.
Steel rails were first made here in
1867, when the price was S166 per ton.
The tariff has been as high as S28 per
ton, and is now $17 Steel rails are
now quoted at S31, and have sometimes
been lower.
A favorite plea with free traders is that
with woods and woolens on the free list,
''the poor mans blanket" would be
sold for one-half its present price, when
the fact is prices for blankets of equal
quality are about the same in the United
States and England Here is the proof :;
Last year the Secretary of War invited
bids for supplying army blankets offour
pounds weight, and allowed foreigners
to compete on the same terms as Amer
lean manufacturers, that is, without
paying the tariff. Tho lowest British
bid was only 80 cents per blanket less
than that of an American. The tariff,
if it had been charged, would be about
81 so Our free trade Cabinet officer
gave the contract to the foreigner who
pays no taxes and BUYS nothing in this
country, instead of favoriug the Ameri-
can, who supplies work to hundreds of
people and otherwise adds TO the wealth
OF our country. The money from our
national treasury went to a foreign coun-
try, and American soldiers are asleep
under British blankets, because they can
be made in England for thirty cents
less than in this country.
And here is some testimony from the
other side: Matthew Arnold. the emf
nent English scholar, statesman and
free trade advocate. recently deceased,
last year made tour of this country,
and afterwards gave his conclusions in
the Nineteenth Century Magazine,
(April, 1881. In this paper the writer
admits that conditions in the United
States are favorable to ''that inn
mense class of people whose incomes
are less than $1,000 year, while in
England the advantage sis greatly in ia
vor of those with incomes above that
sum-" OF wages he says, "the humber
kind of work is better paid in America
than with us, the higher kind worse.
Luxuries are, as have said, very dear
above all, European luxuries; but a
working-mans clothing is nearly as
cheap as in England. and plain food is
on the whole cheaper Illinois Home
Market Club.