Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1888-08-10
Prices Under a Protective Tariff.

| frlces Under a protective Ialln,
The attorneys for free trade, who seek
to create prejudice against the policy
of protection by charging that il
enhances the cost To consumers. can
best lie met by comparison of prices
of few articles in common use.
I'm 1860 salt. then on the free list. sold
To consumers at an average price of 20
per barrel. Tie tariff on salt in barrels
is now II cents per hundred pounds, lor
say 33t cents per barrel), and the
average price is not more than half that
of 1860. AS salt has been made the sub
ject of special attack, it may he well to
ascertain inst how much of the present
selling price goes to the manufacturer
against whom it is sought to create
prejudice. In 1887, at the works in
Michigan, salt sold for go cents per bar
rel-and of this sum % cents was paid
TO the cooper for making the barrel
All between this price and that pald by
consumers went for transportation and
profits of middlemen.
The manufacture Of plate glass was
established in 1866 when the foreign
made articles sold for $3.50 per square
foot. The tariff on similar quality of
glass is now % cents per foot, and the
price has steadily lowered until it is now
rs cents per square foot.
Pig iron, in 1860, sold for 1928 per
ton. With tariff of S6.72 per ton it
now sells for SIS.
Steel rails were first made here in
1857 when the price was Sl66 per ton.
The tariff has been as high as S2S per
ton, and is now SIT. Steel rails are
now quoted at S3l, and have sometimes
been lower. \ favorite plea of free
! traders is that with wool and woolens
on the free list 1.-The poor mans blank
/ et' would be sold for One-half its pres
ent 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 secre-
! tary of war invited bids for supplying
army blankets of four pounds weight,
and allowed foreigne.s TO compete on
! the same terms as Americans. 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 favoring the
American, who supplies work to hun
dreds of people and otherwise adds to
the wealth of our country. The money
from our national treasury went to a
foreign country, and American soldiers
are to sleep under British blankets, be-
cause 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 a tour of this country,
and afterwards gave his conclusions in
the Nineteenth Century Magazine,
april, 1855. In this paper the writer
admits that conditions in the United
States are favorable to that immense
class of people whose incomes are less
than 81 200 year, while in England
the advantage lis greatly in favor 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. Lux
ures are, as | have said, very dear
above all, European luXuries; but a
workingman' clothing is nearly as
cheap as in England, and plain food is
on the whole cheaper