The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1889-09-26
4 REPUBLICAN, on THE TARIFF.

4 REPUBLICAN, on THE TARIFF.
What 1r. Joseph xedill Of the Chi.
cago Tribune Thinks Of the Vic
ious Existing System.
The present system Of protection
backtaxes and waterlogs every other
manufacturer. The whole system is
mutual plumber one Of another and
and all Of each. Suppose l have a
protection Of 80 per cent, levy that
much extra for my goods on my neigh
bors. But my neighbors also have a
protection Of 40 to 100 per cent, and
they levy back on me, and when we
come to balance books at the end Of
the year we find that SO far Mt least
as the workingmen are concerned,
what they have gained in nominal
wages they have lost in the artificial
cost Of living. The manufacturing
capitalists, it is true, have increased
their profits, but it has been done at
the expense Of the unprotected farm
ers, who cannot tax back by fixing
an artificial price on their products
because the market value Of their
crops Is determined by the foreign
quotations. In this protection strug-
gle to grab one from the other, where
the game is the d. take the hind
most, the unprotected agriculturists
are the ones who get taken in and
done for by the smarter town gentry.
Protection Is fraudulent and false
system. Freedom of exchange, like
truth, alone leads to honest results.
In a country like ours, where mon
ey il abundant and for loan by the
hundreds of millions; where it goes
begging for and s per cent. on good
securities; where there is as much
surplus wealth as in any nation in
the world except England;w here men
cannot find investment for their CAPT
tai, it Is not necessary to our ''infant
industries any longer to live on
spoon victuals. They have been cod
died long enough at the cost of farm
ers. They are ''stalwarts" nov, and
il they can't stand let them sit down
or 60 into some other business.
The farmers sell their products on
free trade principles throughout the
world, without protection. The tariff
put down to their credit is straw,
chaff-it is worthless to you; because
whenever you raise surplus Of any
product and seek foreign market
for it the price at which you sell that
surplus determines the entire price
you receive for the whole crop. The
farmers buy goods ut high protected
prices and sell food Mt free trade
prices. Is that fair trade?
know Of nothing agricultural
where protection is of appreciable
value to farmers, except on wool, and
most Of the supposed gain on that is
delusion. In the first place. not more
than half million of the five millions
Of farmers in the United States keep
sheep on their land, and not one in
ten Of those make sheep raising their
principal business. The wooden
clothes Of the %, 0O0, 900 of agricultu-
raj population in this country costs
them nearly double price by reason
OF the enormous duties levied on
imported wooden goods Of all kinds,
and the chief excuse for. imposing and
retaining these immense duties offer
ed by the manufacturers is the tax
on wool which they are obliged to
pay. II the tax were repealed they
admit that the tariff on woLlen cloth
ing might be reduced. Now, you see,
that nfne-tenths Of the farmers keep
no Sheep, ald therefore derive no
benefit whatever from the duties on
the different grades OF wool, and
niue tepths Of the remainder keep SO
few sheep and 80 little wool to sell
that the extra price they receive for
it only repays them a part OF what
they lose in the excessive cost of their
clothing by reason Of the high tariff
on wooden goods, for it j. p fact that
the manufacturer adds the amount OF
the tariff to the price of his woolens,
and the retailer charges ispro6ts ON
the tariff tax as well as on ti,s Orjgi-
nal price Of the article. Hence it is
that at SO or 60 per cent. duty actu-
ally doubles the price of goods to the
customers.
The duty on imported wool aver
ages 10 cents per pound. 1t would be
. great saving to the people Of the
United States il the wool-growers
were paid this 10 cents per pound as
. bounty directly out Of the national
treasury, and adult wool free, and
cut the tariff down one-half on wool
en- goods. The loss would be e90-.
1000 on bounty to the sheep raisers
but the gain to the public in cheaper
clothing would be ten times that sum-
Assessing the increased coss OF WOOL
en- clothing to the people on account
OF the duties on wool and cloth at
the low estimate Of $8 per inhabitant,
it amounts to $l60, 100000 a year on
the 20, OOO, 600 of agricultural popula-
ton who raise no sheep-a sum con-
siderably larger than what was re-
| ceived for the entire Wool-clin. Tina
You see the humbug and fraud of the
cry that the farmers are protected by
the high tariff which in fact enables
manufacturers to fleece them closer
than they shear their own sheep.
And wool IL the only farm org, mod mt