The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-05-05

ton of monopoly in nearly every class of
manufactured products under the highest
protective tariff in the history of our coun-
try. Ii is not to be denied that lower prices
have been steadily coming, coming TO free
trade England as well as to protective Ameri-
ca, coming from causes which, although
contemporaneous with, are wholly indepen-
dent of our tariff policy. But monopoly,
instead of being crushed out by competition,
has seized upon tariff, competition, manufac.
lures, people, and Government, until the
Standard Oil Company, the Bessemer-
combination, the sugar, the cotton seed oil,
the lead, and the salt trusts, the rubber pool,
and scores of other combinations now dictate
their own terms, by arbitrary rule, regardless
of all the elements which, in unrestricted
trade, make up and constitute legitimate
price. The only consideration which inhuen-
ces these grasping combinations is how much
the people will bear and continue to use their
commodities.
By these trusts, the outgrowth of our present
tariff duties, prices have been advanced and
maintained at rate above what they would
have reached had they been left to the opera
ton of the natural laws of trade. Bessemer
steel, under the protection of high duty and
the fostering care of a gigantic combination,
puts into the Golfers of its makers an enormous
revenue, which, though first paid by the build
ers of railroads, is finally extorted from the ag-
ricultural and other shipping classes in ex orbi-
tantfreight charges. This has been so clearly
shown by Mr.. Watterson, in Harper's Maya
zine for January, 1888, that beg leave to re-
peat his statement here:
In the year 1886 the product of the American steel
rail combination was 100000 tons. There are in
the United States about 10000 miles of railroad and
posbv to 10 Ninety tons Of steel rails are used
for every mile of road where steel is used 1t is safe
to say that the steel rails cost the companies SO
more per ton. year in and year out because of the
tariff or 81 $50 for every mile of road built Multi
plying this by 10000 for the number of miles buitn
1887 for the new roads alone the tax is sl350OOOO
These rails last only ten years The entire railroad
system of the United States has to be renewed every
years. at the rate at present of 1900 year,
the additional cost of this at 81 $50 per mile for
1000 miles, is SIS 100000 In other words the tariff
will soon impose upon the builders of new roads,
and on those who renew old ones as they wear out,
tax of So 100000 in of what the cost would
be were tho American railroads permitted to pur-
chase rails where they could by them cheapest
The Bessemer steel rail combination is
permitted and encouraged by protection" to
extort such high prices from railroads that
the companies are compelled to recoup on the
agricultural productions of the whole country
and thus the protected Bessemer- steel COM
bination levies its contributions on agriculture,
trade, and business, until,
AS paturalists observe, flea
Has smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still TO bite EN-,
And so proceed adj iljinitum.
One projected interest bites and sucks an
other, and all bleed and exhaust the people.
Thus protection enables Pennsylvania iron to
levy its contribution on Ohio wool, yet both
states are loud in their demands for the pro-
tectve system.
The salt trust, composed of sixty-three
companies, heeces the people with the help of
duty of 1913 per cent. on imported salt, and
every pound of pork, bacon, beef and other
provisions which require salt to preserve them
for food purposes, pays its tribute to that trust.
Sugar is protected by an average duty of
81 OF per cent, and refners trust reaps the
benefit of protection originally intended for
the Louisiana planter.
Rubber shoes, with an import duty of %
per cent, have also their trust, with $780,
000,0 900 capital, to keep up the cost Of dry
feet.
One cannot spread u table cloth without
paying tribute to combination, nor floor
cloth without contributing an extra profit and
40per cent. duty to trust whose circular says:
Members have paid into the association large
sums of money, which are forfeitable on the viola
ton by them of any of the provisions of the asoca
ton. They have also bound all their statesmen and
agents to maintain strictly the terms which they
themselves have agreed to-
Violations of the agreement to maintain
prices are punishable by a fine of $500. Deal
ers who can show that they have maintained
the prices fixed for the season from December
/, 1887, to May 81, 1888, will receive from
the official of the pool a rebate of from Is to
III per cent. But they are not to sell to re-
tailers who sell at prices under the schedule.
''The association" saYs the circular, ''will
not reduce prices prior to June LIST, 1888.
They reserve to themselves the right to ad-
vance the same at any time without notice. -
The first effect of the formation of this virtual
trust was an advance in the price of oilcoths
of Go per cent; that is to say, prices have
been advanced that much beyond the figure
at which some manufacturers could sell
oiIcloths with profit. The 65 per cent. is extra
profit to the members of the association and
extra loss to buyers.
These combinations, pools and trusts, the
inventions and schemes Of cunning men, per-
wade almost every branch of business. They
are made possible by our iniquitous tariff
system, and they add hours to the labor of the
workingman; they hinder the alienation of the
people and retard the progress of civilization.
| have endeavored to show that every basic
principle of the protective theory-commer-
cial independence, the home market, the pro-
lection Of labor and the prevention of monop-
oly-is delusive, and cannot stand the test of
reason and experiences that commercial indie
pepdepce, if realized, would be calamitous;
that the home market of sixty millions of
people has failed to prevent 500, 000, 900 of
our products yearly seeking the markets Of
the world; that labor owes the rise in the rate
of wages to our public lands and to the inven.
tive genius of our people, and that monopoly,
instead of being prevented by competition,
has been promoted by the restrictive policy.
The fallacies which foster protection are
not less inimical to the interests of the people
than the modes in which its tributes are levied,
Articles of prime necessity are taxed until
they are made to pay SO per cent. of the duty
COLLECTED. Raw materials, WHICH enter into
manufactures, starting with tax in their
simplest form, are followed by other duties
after every change to which they may be sub
jeoted, until double and triple and quadruple
duties enhance the cost of the simplest and
most needed article. Iron ore is taxed 70
cents per ton. An average of 5000 pounds
of iron ore make 2,240 pounds of pig iron,
and the tax on ore is over 81 on the ton of
pig iron in the first stage Of manufacture.
The duty on pig iron is three tenths Of cent
per pound, or SCI per ton, which, added to
the 81 on iron ore, makes S7.72 of tax at the
second stage of manufacture, and through
every other form which the iron may take
taxation follows and increases, and ceases not
through all the lie OF the metal until oxidation
has returned it to the earth.
The report on the mineral resources for
1886 states the domestic iron ore consumed
in that year to have been 10, 900, 900 long tons,
valued at the mines at SIS, ZOO, 000 that i'm.
ported iron ores consumed was l,Q39, 43a long
tons; total iron ore consumed, II ,039, 433 long
tons. That of pig iron there was made
5,6S3, 1929 long tons, valued at the furnace at
S95, 1876, 760. A ton ofiron ore is worth 81. 80,
and ton of pig iron $l6.T5, according to the
figures of the same report. From the same
source we learn that the ''total spot yalSe Of
all iron and steel in the first stage of manu-
faetpFe, excluding all Implications, was S142,-
500, 600 Notwithstanding the large output of
American ore, l,0aS, 565 long tons of foreign
ores were imported. While the United States
produced in 1885 % per cent. of the worlds
production of pig iron and 81 per cent, Of the
worlds production Of steel, il was found me-
cessary to draw on foreign countries for more
than 1000, 900 tons of ore. This importation
cannot be accounted for on the supposition
that more ore was required than was mined
in the country, but was due to the fact that
American ores are too rich in phosphorus for
Bessemer steel making, and in order to work
American ores for this purpose they must be
mixed with one-third such carbonaceops ores