New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-10-03

| bno money LndG WOuiQ OCnerWlSo4 nave
been paid to him and taken out of the
country remains at home to be rein
vested in this country. He pays it
when the (American) home market is
taken out of his control by the develop
ment of (AmericaL) home industries,
and he is obliged to compete with the
] home manufacturer.
! The simpler we make all these prob
lens the better. Suppose the price of
an article of foreign manufacture, the
like of which is not made in this coun-
try, to be $5. Suppose tariff of 81 to
be imposed with the view of inducing
capital to engage in the manufacture
of this artice at home. The price might
go up at once to $6-the original price
with the duty added. Suppose it to ad-
vance, and both the imported and the
domestic article to be sold at Sc. The
consumer is then paying the tariff and
the foreign manufacturer is not serious
ly hurt. But suppose the competition
/ between the home manufacturers,
brought into existence by the tariff, and
between them and the foreign maker be-
gins TO result in reduction of prices.
Suppose the home product to be sold at
S5. The foreign maker must sell at
the same figure, but when he does SO he
only receives 81 for his article because
there is a duty on it of 81. As long as
che price was Sc the consumer paid all
the duty. When the price began to de-
cline below S6 the foreign producer be-
gan to pay a part of the duty and to
take that much less for his goods than
he received in the first place when he
had control of the market, till, finally,
at SIS, he paid it all.
Down to this point the consumer has
gained nothing over the condition of
things before the duty was imposed,
except that competition between home
and foreign producer has been establi-
shed, but he has already ceased to pay
the duty because he is getting his goods
just as cheap as he ever did. He very
soon discovers, however, that he has
made substantial gain by the tempo
rary disadvantage of duty when it
was first imposed, for the price Of the
domestic article continues to decline as
| the home manufacturers come to COM
pete more vigorously with each other.
| The price of the domestic article soon
falls to $3.50 The foreign manufac-
turer tries to compete, but he must
first pay the duty of 81 so that he only
gets $3.50 for himself. The domestic
industry has already grown SO strong
that it leads the decline in price and
foreign producers must continue to pay
the tariff and take that much less for
his product before he can sell it in this
market.
! The JOURNAL is fully prepared to do
so but assumes that it is not necessary
to show by specific examples that the
suppositions case employed above is a
fair example of what occurred in every
important protected industry in this
country: that the effect of every protec-
tive duty ever levied on any article, the
manufacture of which has grown to
large proportions, has been to make the
article cheaper than it was before, and
not only to require the foreign producer
to pay tax for the privilege Of selling
in this market, but to sell at lower
price than before the duty was imposed.
It may be claimed, in connection with
the above illustration that where the
price of the article in question reached
| So, for example, there was demonstra.
ton in that fact that the foreign produ-
Ger could afford to sell at So, and that
it it had not been for the duty he would
do so; that if the duty were removed
have to sell at that price, too, and that
therefore the consumer is paying just
that much more for the article than he
ought to pay by as much as the tariff
amounts to. A good many people are
satisfied with that view and that is
where the cry of ..the robber tariff
comes in. The system which has al
ready reduced the price OF every impor-
tant article of manufacture far below
the price which prevailed,is set upon by
a lot of hostile theorists and accused of
imposing a burden when the net result
has not only been q relief to the con-
sumner but.a stimulus to the prosperity
of the country such as it could never
have enjoyed in any other way. Such
a charge is unreasonable. If it were
not made against an impersonal thing it
would be contemplate. Ifan individ-
1 ual had conferred benefit upon y COM