Smyrna times., 1888-10-24
Is a Protective Tariff a Tax on
the Consumer

Free-LfdQ0 uOCJfluG IudO Tue COSt VI INC
productions of country in the hands
of the consumer is increased by a Pro-
tective Tariff. a study of history
shows that q uniform tendency of the
Protective system is to build up vast
industries and cheaper prices. HOwis
it. if Protective Tariff is a tax, that
in England, where woolens formerly
had a high tariff, and where the duty
on iron was raised over and over again
from two dollars and fifty cents to thir-
ty-fve dollars per ton, woolens and
iron grew cheaper all the time? The
brains and energy Of the American in
ventor. and the skill of the American !
workman, have already enabled US to |
supplant many English products, by |
novelty Of construction and excellency |
of work. Is it not wise to profit by the |
advantages we have thus gained, and |
will gain still more in the near future, |
maintain the principle of Protection,
and thus command the foreign market
as well as our own? COttons, imported
at fifty cents a yard before our mills
were built, have been exported at six
cents under high tariff, and of a
better quality. The tariff on standard
cotton is no more a burden or tax on
the home consumer than that on wheat
or beef. 1t is simply a barrier against
the flooding of our market by English
goods at less than cost, that they may
break down competition and control
the whole market when prices revive.
Our American sewing-silk is better
than the French or Italian, and in
price and quality distances foreign COM
which according to the Free-trade
theory, ought to add to its cost, it has
gone down instead Of up. It is greatly
improved in quality, but the price IS a
| third less. The average decline in
value of American silk goods is not less
than twenty-five per cent, and is prob
| ably over thirty per cent, IN fifteen
years. During the ten Protective
years, from 1870 to 1880, there was
gain of fOrty-three per cent. in sheep
! husbandry, against gain Of little
over three per cent. from 1850 70 1860
and all this wool was bought by Our
own mills. The wool-grOwing indus
try in America would suffer serious in
Jury by any decrease in our home man
ufacture of woolens, and the manufac-
turers would be equally injured by
| anv decrease in the home supply Of
wool. Their interest. is one. More
than four-ffths of our wooden goods
are made here, and the sixty million
consumers buy their common working
clothing as cheap as lit could be in Eng
land, and are far better able to pay for
it than the people there.
AS to iron and steel. the average
price in New York of ship-plates,
lange iron. angle iron and rivets, all OF
which ship-builders very largely use,
was twenty-five per cent. lower, from
1870 to 1880, than from 1850 to 1860
under a lower tariff; and wages were
twenty per cent. higher. If, as the
London Engineer, devoted to British
manufactures, says, as far as the
American consumer of iron is concern
ed he is the better off for Protection,
then how can that Protection tax tht
consumer? Cast steel of English make
had been sold here for twenty years, a
sixteen to eighteen cents per pound
and none was made here. Under
higher tariff, our steel makers began
{ work about 1862, on a large scale, a
Pittsburgh and elsewhere, and tn
same quality came down to thirteel
cents and fifteen cents. In the lat
Civil War our cast steel sold at thirty
two cents, while British steel was he'll
at forty-fye cents. thus saving our Gov
ernment large sums, and saving U
3 from dependence on a foreign power
James Park, Jr., of Pittsburgh, a ger
tleman of large experience, who ha
visited all the great steel-makers {
Europe, said that extensive cOrrespOI
dence and inquiry led him to estimat
the saving to users of cast steel in tn
country by the growth of our stee
making under a Protective Tariff, an
the consequent reduction in price, &
over tWenty-three million dollars, {
thirty-eight per cent. He added tht
we paid better wages than are pa
abroad, aud that no steel was superb
to ours. The American mills maxim
ur steel rails have furnished US steel raj
iiPI,1 for ten years at an average price lit
en- less than the English price in l87
ed. which was about fifty-seven dOlla
est 81 and ninety-three cents per ton. Up
the date of the opening of the iii
steelrail mill here, the English CO
trolled our market and the price
charging US one hundred and fifty d.
;:ds, lars in gold per ton. Rails have sin
iar then been sold at twenty-seven dOlla
me per ton. When the manufacture of C
u nails was first undertaken in this cOu
try, wrought nails which then cC
n twenty-five cents per pound, we
u largely imported. On the 1st of Jan
p ary, 1876, tie price was two and or
'rh half cents. For long time we ha
- exported nails to foreign cOuntrie
T. the value of the exports of nails a
he spikes in the fiscal year 1875 amour
l19 .;9 ing to half million of dollars. In Is
mt, a Philadelphia Grm commenced
lrs' manufacture of saws on q small sea
We: At that time English saws sold in {
ity. market at from fifteen dollars and ST
S9 oS- enty-fve cents to nineteen dollars
dozen. In 1876 the Philadelphia ms
iiees' ufacturers were sending saws to Ell
- land, and selling them at ten doll
nal and fifty cents a dOZen-fnlly fl
3 per cent. less than the price the E
I0 lishmen charged us in 1910. WI
sS' 49, this firm commenced business, comm
less. saws of foreign manufacture were s
cap in this country at four dollars and Fl
9se' Sse cents a dozen, and they could not
on, made here for less than seven dollar
; OF dozen but now the firm in quest
ls1s ship common saws to South Amer
at four dollars and City cents, and Il
exports in 1875 were fully one hund
thousand dollars. The firm made Il
own steel. Under Protection, Gro
,ct, ery-ware has been reduced, and
11e can now buy for two dollars and
ac- cents as much as could be bought
are four dollars before the business
ore protected by the Tariff. We m
ne ne over one hundred and sixty-six mill
'A' dollars worth of boots and shoes y,
", and over forty-three million dol
of yearly wages are paid to our wo
men in this department of manu-
ture and we sell in our shoe store
II Al cheap as the English retail shops
/, ,u I, After the war, before the rice inte
e il was built up by Protection, the pric
rice per hundred in this country
a. twelve dollars. In 1888, one hunC
thousand to two hundred thous
~ people were engaged in profitable
too cupation, and rice was only four
lved lars and twenty-five cents to four
'ook lars and fifty cents.
YOU. The farmer, who, it is elaine,
rn robbed by the Tariff, can read for
self that there is an import dut.