Evening journal., 1888-09-18
rARlEE ON lllrE-

Our correspondent. Mr. G. f. Wright.
who writes to-dayrespecting the proposed
placing Of jute on the free list put his
questions in such form that they ar,
almost their own answer The industry
10 which jute belongs and which en-
ploys a good many persons in this com
munity has been exceedingly unfortunate
at the hands Of Mr. Mills and the free
trade conspirators Flax, hemp, jute
and their manufactures were imported in
1887 to the money value of $33. S07, 2S3.
in the aggregate they were exceeded by
only three other classes ofimports, namely,
sugar, ,molasses and candy, wool and its
manufactures, aud iron and steel and
their manufactures. Hence they consti-
tute very important element of the in
dustrial fabric Of the country They rank
fourth in money value; but the amount
Of duties which they paid ranked sixth,
that is comparatively speaking, flax and
jute were already the subjects of duties
below the average While wooden goods
last year paid a duty Of nearly 60 per cent.
and six nearly 50 per centum, flax and
jute paid only % per centum. It's duty
was low to begin with, But the Mills
bill proposes to take all duty off.
There can be but one result in the event
Of the Mills bin becoming law. The
mills in this country viii have TO shut
down. AS our correspondent says iute,
Cute thread and indeed all things made
from jute is to suffer a reduction of "a
per centum by simple subtraction. The
duty now is really 8j per centum ad
valorem. The Mills bill proposes to re-
duce it to 10 per centum, which is really
reduction Of 20 on 35, Or
about 60 per centum. The raw
material Is to be made free But the
greater part Of the value Of all the things
made out Of jute, fax, sum, sisal, grass,
ate. is labor The raw material is com.
paratively cheap Il is the labor then
that is attacked by the Mills bill. The
manufacturers Of twine, etc, will saw.
and their employees viii confirm it. that
there is very little money in the business
that the per centum Of profit is at
the bottom Of the schedule OF
profits. Where win they be left
when 60 per centum of their
protection against foreign imports il
taken awayg Mr. wright's question an
swers itself.
Our free trade friends win saw that
the jute manufacturers will make up on
the cheaper raw material what they viii
lose by the reduction Of the tariff duty on
the manufactured, but as we pointed out
before this is not true. It cannot be
true. because it is labor and not raw ma
terial that constitutes the greate
portion Of the value of tn
manufactured goods. But thii
is not the only mischief that it win do
Our farmers have been slow to take hol
ofjute, because it did not promise to pa
as well as some other things are paying
Too much goods manufactured from jut
was imported under the low duties pre-
vailing to create a big demand for tn
American raw material, and there is N
question that with the passage Of tn
Mills bill not straw of jute would b.
grown in this country.
And this point illustrates the philoso
ply Of the Protective tariff. 1t shelter
z9d encourages the growth and develop
rnent Of every thing under the sun in thi
country. 1t enables farmers to rails
whatever is raised by the farmers Of tn
shoe world, and it does equally well b,