The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-07-20
PRICES UNDER A PROTECTIVE
TARIFF

Contributed by The Home Market Club of I'LL
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 be met
by comparison of prices of a few artic-
les in common use.
In 1850 salt then on the free list, sold
to customers at an average price of So 90
per barrel. The tariff on salt in barrels
is now IL cents per hundred pounds, Tor
say 333 cents per barely, and the aver
age price is not more than half that of
1860. As salt has been made the subject
of special attack, 1t may be we'll to as
certain just how much Of the present
selling price goes to the manufacturer,
against whom 1t is sought to create pre-
judice. In 1887 at the works in Michi-
gan, salt sold for 60 cents per barrel, and
OF this sum ~ 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 prof
its of mIdlemen.
The manufacture of plate glass was es-
tablished in 1866, when the foreign-made
article sold for $3.50 per square foot.
The tariff on similar quality of glass is
now 80 cents per foot, and the price has
steadily lowered until it is now rs cents
per square foot.
Pig Iron, in 1860, sold for $22,75 per
ton. With tariff of 1915 per ton it
now sells for SIS.
Steel rails were first made here in 1867
when the price was $4,000 per ton. The
tariff has been as high as 1923 per ton,
and is now $l7. Steel rails are now quo
ted at $3l, and have sometimes been
lower.
A favorite plea of 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 qality
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 of four
pounds weight, and allowed foreigners
to compete on the same terms as Ameri-
can manufacturers, that is, without pay
ing the tariff. The lowest British bid
was 30 cents per blanket less than that
of al American. The tariff, if it had
been charged, would be about $3.50.
Our free trade Cabinet officer gave the
contract to the foreigner who pays no
taxes and buys nothing in this country,
instead offavoring the American who
supplies work to hundreds of people
and otherwise adds to the wealth of our
country. The money from our national
treasury went to foreign country, and
American soldiers are to sleep 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. 1851 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 81 600 year, while in England the
advantage sis greatly in favor of those
with incomes above the sum-" OF wa
ges 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 workingman's
clothing is nearly as cheap as in Eng
land, and plain food is on the whole
cheaper"