Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-08-29
FRIDAY MORNING. AUG. 20, 1890.
"IGNORANCE OR WORSE.

The Misrepresentation which the low tariff
speakers and newspapers continue to make
concerning the proposed tariff law are simply
inexcusable, whether they be the result OF
Ignorance (of which, by the way, the average
free trader has an abundant supply or OF
deliberate intention to deceive.
We might mention dozen or more instan-
ces in which they have persistently misrepre-
scented plain facts in regard to this bill, but
we will only mention two.
list. They have loudly and continuously
asserted that the Mckinley bill proposes to
add to the duty on sulphuric acid to such an
extent as to cause an increase in the price OF
those fertilizers into which that acid enters,
qohen as q matter of fact the Mckinley bill &C
tatagLy places such acids upon the free last. That
is, instead of increasing the duty upon that
article, the bill actually proposes to admit it
into this country absolutely free of duty.
A second gross misrepresentation in which
they persist is that labor gets little OF moth
ing of the profits resulting from protective
tariffs.
A few days ago Senator Jones. of Arkansas,
actually arose in his seat in the Senate and
asserted that the cost of labor in making a
ton of steel rails was only S1.54, and conse-
quently the laborers could not get much out
of the tariff on steel rails.
Senator Platt, of Connecticut, Immediately
refuted this argument by showing him what
Senator Payne, a Democrat, had told the Sen
ate was the actual amount of the labor cost
of ton of steel rails, which he showed was
s21 SS in ton costing $3.50. This allows
s767 for ore, coke, coal, oil, gas, clay, &C.,
and any one can at once see that these items,
for instance coal, represent in part labor.
Thus labor gets S21 83 instead of $1.54.
Now what are we to think of such misrep-
reservations ?''-Harrlsonbury Spirit of the
Valley
Such utterances as the above from our
esteemed Republican contemporary only show
how important to the people of the American
Union is the present campaign Of educa-
ton" being furnished them by the Demo-
cratic congressman and press on the subject
Of the tariff. Such grave errors SO
confidently stated by the Spirit, show how
easily people may be misled-we are sure
unintentionally-by writer who ought to
have Investigated the matter and not taken
the haphazard statements of congressman
of either party. The article of sulphuric
acid is not on the free list, but was taken
from the free list by the Mckinley bill and
a tax OF cent pound, OF
SIS a ton, put Oh it. 1t had been,
prior to that, on the free list since 1888.
The clause taxing sulphuric acid came up in
the House of Representatives on May 18th
and the whole proceedings and debate on
that subject will be found by our cotempo-
rary in the Congressional Record of May
18th, running from page 1875 to page 1890
the two last pages SO and 80 containing the
vote on the efforts to strike it out. In the
Mckinley bill the tax will be found in Para
graph schedule A. The sum of SIS per tor
tax will amount to $40, 500, 900, which must
come out of the consumer of the article
In the Democratic s'free trade'' days O.
1S57-those halcyon days of the Nation
prosperity according to Secretary Blaine il
his published work, the Democrats had 1
on the free list. So much for the frs
''instance'' of 1.-THE misrepresentation
which the low tariff speakers and newspa
pers continue to make concerning the pro
posed tariff law.''
About it's second instance our cotempo
rary is as far out of the way. Wher
Senator Jones Of Arkansas ''actually ROSE
III his seat and asserted that the cost OF
labor in making a ton of steel rails was
only $751; Senator Jones of Arkansas
stated the actual truth. And he got it from
the official report of very distinguished
Republican official of the government
Labor Commissioner Carroll D. Wright
Here is MI. Wright report of the materi
al, labor and total cost of production OF
one ton of steel rails at several establish
ments in the United States: