Wichita eagle., 1888-09-26
PROTECTION TARIFF.
To the Editor of the EAGLE:

We maintain that our present protect
i've tariff system, like the rays Of the SUI
that warm and nourish ever blade Of
grass and petal of flower, benefit the Ia
borer, the farmer and the manufacturer
and in fact every man, woman and
child in America. 1t enables the labore1
to get higher price for his products
and also enables him to buy what he
consumes at lower price. It benefit:
the manufacturer by giving him the adj
vantage of the home market, and pro
tects him against the unequal COMPETE
ton of the foreign manufacturer who
employs cheap labor.
The price of the American manu-
! featured articles has stead
lily gone down through the in1u-
| ence Of internal competition, and the
| only way American manufacturers
| could meet the decline in prices and adj
vance in wages was by inventing, and
encouraging others to invent, new and
improved facilities and appliances for
the manufacture of various kinds Of
goods which enabled the American
workman to produce greater number
II
merly did, and the farmer who purchases
| these articles gets them at lower price
than he did in 1860.
1t is well established fact that agri-
cultural implements are lower in price
than they were in 1860. It is
the same with cotton goods,
boots and shoes. Calico in
1860 sold from 12c to 15c per yard;
r hf ir 20 70
was 12c per pound; it is now &c. And
three of the principal American wooden
manufacturers state that woolens are
sold today at less price than ever be-
fore. Knit goods are lower; it is the
same with kitchen utensils, pottery and
glassware, and in fact in a great many
cases home made goods sell at the same,
and in some cases at actually lower
prices in this country than in England.
Our farmers can buy a moving ma
chine for $50; formerly they paid over
500 for it. They can buy farm wagon
now for $50, which used to
cost in the neighborhood of 500. Silks
and dress goods are lower. Away
back in good old Democratic" times
farm hands received s. per month; now
they get SIG. Common laborers re-
ceived 80 cents per day; now they re-
ceive 81 to S1.25 per day. Carpenters
received $3.50 per day, and now from
$500 to $3.50. Steel sheet rollers re-
ceive from $13 to $14 per day, and their
helpers get from 81 to 50 per day.
We apprehend that no fair-minded man
will contradict the fact that the average
wages in this country are higher than in
any other country, and higher than they
would have been under free trade or
low tariff.
1t is advocated by free traders and
tariff reductionists that a high tariff is
not of any benefit to the farmer but is
an actual injury, as he is forced to sell
his farm product on free trade market.
They claim that the Liverpool price alb
solutely controls the price of farm
products in this country. In other
words, that the export price of a product
absolutely controls the price of that
product in the country from which it
was exported.
Now we take issue with this assump-
ton and state that it is one Of the great
est falacies ever penned by man. The
Liverpool or export price of product
does not absolutely control the
price of that product in
America; it only indicates but does not
control it, We will show that the mag
mates of Liverpool do not arbitrarily
make price on American wheat, but
that they are compelled to make price.
If they could arbitrarily make price
on wheat they could put it down to 2Cc.
and we would be compelled to sell at
that price. Oh; but you say, they could
not put wheat as low as that. All; then
YOU limit their power to control, and
thus virtually admit that there is some
thing that controls them.
Now what is the great motor power
that controls these price makers? Last
year the American product of wheat
was $50, 100000 bushels, out of that
amount we exported 10000, 000 Sup
pose that for some untold reason Amer
lea should produce next year 900, 0O0,00
bushels of wheat and our consumption
be the same as this year, viz 32O, 900, 600
bushels, of course we would have $780,
600, 900 bushels that would be thrown on
the Liverpool market for sale. And
suppose India and Russia should have
correspondingly large wheat crops, what
would be the result? Why, any tyro in
philosophy would say that the price Of
wheat would go down to an alarming
extent in spite of Liverpool magnates, or
anybody else.
Again, if there be a poor crop in
the three countries named and we
should have only 100000 bush
els to offer the Liverpool
market, and the other two countries a
small amount, an i'm
mediate advance in the price would take
place. We would like to ask these ex-
port price fellows if it does not begin to
creep into their minds that instead of
the Liverpool prices Of wheat controlling
the prices in this country that the mag
mates of Liverpool, the Liverpool markets
the prices of wheat in Liverpool, and the
prices in this country, are absolutely and
unaualifiedly controlled by that law
which is as sure and effectual In its re-
suits as the inimitable and unchange-
able laws of the universe; and that law
is the great and universal laws of supply
and demand:
The price of wheat at Liverpool SIM
ply indicates the amount Of the supply
and demand.
Now we are ready to show the effect
of the tariff Oh the price of wheat. On
the End day of March, 1861, the Morrill,
tariff act became law. The effect of
the law was to Immediately cause the
number of manufactures of all kind to
increase all over the land with wonder
full rapidity, and every industry that
was added to the former number called
for certain number Of laborers to oper-
ate it, and by an increased demand for
workmen at high wages, immigration
was stimulated, and hundreds and thou
sands of wage workers sought our
shores, and a great many of them re-
solved themselves into consumers and