The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-02-21
Free Raw Material.

| 4I60 Lid" mdt0Eldl.
Under this caption the Philadelphia Press
has an article in which il runs over the suit
of clothes chestnut of the Presidential CAM
paign, and when the article is read with its
figures on cost Of wool, tariff cost, cost Of
cloth, and cost of labor, the demonstration
is "clear as mud" Why not state the sim
pie facts which involve the manu- facture OF
the cassimer or cloth and allow the customer
| TO get his trousers made where he chooses.
If John Smith, the weaver, purchases a
$1,000 worth of wool he charges expense ac-
count with it. If he pays three or four hun.
dred dollars duty to the custom house Of
fcer on that wool, he charges that also to
expense account. If he purchases the wool
in this country he has to pay just the same
and the wool grower of the United States is
three or four hundred dollars more in peck.
ct than he otherwise would have been.
That is protection to the wool grower. But
how does John Smith the weaver secure his
protection? Well, there is a tariff duty Of
say, 6e per cent. on wooden goods which are
brought into the United States for sale, and
weaver John Smith, has charged up The COST
of the raw wool, the dye stuff, the duty he
palc, together with the interest on the capital
he has invested in this raw material, and he
adds them all to the cost of production, and
marks his goods accordingly and the dnty Of
IS per cent on imported woolens enables
him 10 do so. When farmer John Smith
buys this goods to make his trousers. he
pays the whole bill-the cost of raw wool.
the dye stuff, the tariff, the cost of manu-
featuring the goods, including those "wages
of laborer,' which he has heard 80 much
about. Now it is plain enough that all Of
| these parties are protected till we come TO
farmer John Smith. He isn't going to sell
the trousers to any Sody else, or he might
charge cost and profit on them too, and COL
lect all off of the next fellow. But how
about farmer Johns wheat and corn which
he sells to get money 10 purchase the cassi-
mere to make his pants? Does he set the
price of the articles by what they have cost
htm? Oh, no. When be sends these pro-
ducts to market the man he sells to tells
him the price of grain in Marklane, or Liv-
erpool is so much, and that's the price of
your grain farmer John, less the cost of
transportation. Farmer John can't raise
sheep to haye wool to trade to the manu-
facturer, for the business is too risky; the
dogs kill them. If he lived out on the
plains or in some sparcely settled country
about the mountains he might keep flock,
but not in the thickly settled neighborhoods
where there is village every two miles,
vita as many dogs as people. So he doesn't
get any benefit from the tariff on wool, but
he pays it just the same when he buys cloth
for his pants. And this is absolutely all
there is about the tariff on wool. The peo-
Pile who wear the clothes pay for the raw
material and the duty on it together with
every other cost. If the manufacturer
could get his raw material without paving
an import duty on it he could manufacture
the goods that much cheaper and sell them
that much less, and everybody would be
more benefited. except, possibly the few
men, comparatively, who raise the wool
Oh; west. But the policy of protection,
which is the republican party's fundam entail
doctrine and policy of political economy,
must be upheld. Very we'll. Give the
manufacturers raw material free ofdnty and
they can lay in their stock as cheap as any
other manufacturers in the world: then re-
ddce the duty on the manufactured goods
the amount that was taken off raw ma :er ial
and they will be "protected" considerably
more than under the present law, by lessen
ing the amount of capital necessary to in.
vest in stock, and the price of goods to last
purchaser, or the person who uses them,
and nine tenths of the people will be bene-
fitted, the manufacturer among the rest.
This is a protective tariff" while the pres
ent tariff is an obstructive tariff and is clear
untemable as high license, both of which
The scheming politicians have decoyeI the
republican party into, and which the rank
and file of its members are opposed to. But
in order to catch the whskey vote and the
influence of the wool spectators the trading
politicians have beguiled the party onto
these quicksands.
The moral and religious sense of the
nation are rising up in protest against the
outrageous sin and fraud ofhigh license, and
the farmers associations are growing more
and more earnest and pronounced in their
opposition TO a revenue and financial policy
under which farmers have been led to the
verge Of bankruptcy, and every indication
points to a storm of popular dissatisfaction
that will not only sweep any party from
power that champions these measures but
annihilate it. There are fearful mutterngs
in the political atmosphere and signs of an
approaching cyclone.