The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1888-07-21
PRICES UNDER a PROTECTIVE TAR.
TFF

IFF.
The attorneys for free trade. who seek
TO create prejudice against the policy Of
protection by charging that IL enhances
the cost 10 consumers, can hest be met
by comparison Of prices OF a few ar
ticles in common use.
In 1860 salt, then on the free list, sold
TO consumers at an average price OF Sd.
per barrel Tariff on salt in barrels is
now twelve cents per hundred pounds,
Tor, say, thirtysthree and one-han cents
ger barrel, and the average price Is not
more than hall that Of 1860. AS salt
has been made the subject OF special at
tack, IL may be well To ascertain just how
much OF the present selling price goes to
the manufacturer, against whom il Is
sought 20 create prejudice. In 1887, at
the works in Michigan, salt sold for sixty
cents per barrel, and OF this sum twenty
cents went to the cooper for making the
barrel. All between this price and that
paid by consumers went Tor transport
tation and profits OF middlemen.
The manufacture Of plate glass WIS
established in 1866, when the foreign
made article sold for $3.50 per square
foot. The tariff on similar quality OF
glass is now fifty cent per foot, and the
price has steadily lowered until il is now
seventy-five cents per square foot.
Pig iron, i'm 1860, sold for S22.75 per
ton. With tariff OF S6.72 per ton it
now sells for SIS.
Steel rails were first made here i'm 1867,
when the price was S166 per ton. The
tariff has been as high AZ S2S per ton,
and Is now SIT. Steelrails are now quot
ed at $751; and have sometimes been
lower
A iavorite plea OF free traders is that
with woods and woolens on the free list
"the poor mans blanket" would be sold
for one-half it's present price, when the
fact Ii prices for blankets OF equal quail
ity 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 American
manufacturers, that is, without paying
the tariff. The lowest British bid was
only thirty cents lower than that OF an
American. The tariff, II il had been
charged, would be about S1.50. Our
free trade cabinet officer gave the con-
tract To the foreigner who pays no taxes
and buys nothing in this 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. III has lately been discovered
that the foreign blankets are not llwool
and are very much inferior to the blank
cts made by home manufacturers and
furnished at the same price as the foreign
made blankets.
And here il some testimony from the
other side: Matthew Arnold, the eminent
English scholar, statesman and free trade
advocate, recently deceased, last year
made "A tour OF this country, and after
wards gave his conclusions in the Nine
teenth Century Magazine, April, 1889.
In this paper the writer admits that
conditions in the United States are Ia
vorable to"that immense class oipeople"
whose incomes are less than Sl,5O0 n
year, while in England the advantage Is
greatly in favor Of those with incomes
above that sum-" OF wages he says,
the humber kind ofwork is better paid in
America than with as, the higher kind
worse. Luxuries are, ar | have said,
very dear--above all European luxries
but working-man's clothing is nearly
IA cheap as in England, and plain food
IN on the whole cheaper"