Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-01-02
THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1890.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1890
some of the vagaries of a HeP"O-
lican War Tariff.
A gentleman named Macbeth, from
Pittsburg, the other day, appeared before
the Committee of Ways and Means, and
demanded the rescission of the duty on
certain specialties in Ills business, which
was the manufacture of glass. He as
serted that if the import duties on potash
and other staples were removed he could
afford to pay the wages he pays now ano
stand the foreign competition. 1t is
pity that Macbeth's name is not Mac
Duff. In that event he might be able to
clay on" enough to bring this Repub
lican Committee to the point of realizing
that the consumers have some rights
which the tariff zealots of the Republican
party might be induced to respect. But,
to quote, with patriotic variation, the
language of the original Macbeth
"damned be he" who dares to deny to
the many-headed multitude known Of
the people their right to buy the neces
saries of life at reasonable figure. In
the course of his testimony Mr.. Macbeth
said that the American manufacturer oi
soda ash, which enters largely into the
plant of glass mandatory, could at
ford to make and sell this staple, against
the foreign article, for sixty cents pei
hundred pounds, while they actually
charge one dollar and forty-five cents
While standing in with Mr.. Macbeth on
the general proposition of reduction oi
the war duties, we feel tempted to suggest
to him that if there is really this large
profit in the manufacturing of soda ash
he would make a killing by going into
that business.
But dropping persifage, when lead
ing glass manufacturer can assert, in the
face of the country and OF a thousand
experts who could promptly give him
the lie if he we're exaggerating, that there
is such tremendous difference between
the real price of soda ash and what ought
to be its price, is it not high time that
the corrupt and fantastical Republican
war tariff should be revised not only as to
this speciality but as to its entire scope
The Republican party undoubtedly
took fagitious advantage of the term "pro-
lection" to work untold enormities on the
people of the United States. Perhaps the
most conspicuous instance of this occurred
during the war, and as we are still suf-
fering from many exactions of the tariff
which was enacted at that time, and
amended to more exactions after, it may
be as we'll to refer to it. There was salt
mandatory at Onandaga, in the State
of New York, which procured the pas
sage of scandalously high duties oD this
prime necessary OF life. Under the
stimulus of this excessive duty the COM
pany, which was declaring over four
hundred per cent. dividends year, ac-
cumulated a prodigious quantity of sur
plus salt. They did not desire to break
the market, SO they availed themselves
of the privilege, accorded by the Consti-
tuition of the United States, of exporting
their surplus to Canada, and selling il
there at one half the price which they
charged the people of the United States
1t would be hard, in the whole history
of popular government, to dig up more
infamous instance of the prostitution oi
the functions of legislature than is en-
bodied in this almost incredible instance
of official favoritism. 1t recalls nothing
SO forcibly as the prostitution of the
coinage of Ireland under DIR. Woods, as
an incident of the ascendancy of mis-.
tress over pioflgate King of England
That these excesses of the tariff
permeated every department is proven
Dy an instance which came
under the observation of the
writer. In the days when an income
tax was collected, thus affording some
sort of guide to personal and corpora
ton receipts, corporation known as th,
American Hoop Iron Company" wa!
started in Pittsburg. The total paid III
stock was $30. 900. Nevertheless, an in
come tax was paid on dividends de-
Cidtcu VI foo o,OUO, VI OAC uuuuIcu hut
thirty per cent, the first year of it's ex
istence, on its paid up stock.
It must be borne in mind that WI
are not only living today under
the tariff which made such incredible
exactions possible, but that it was actu
ally made more oppressive in it's features
in 1865-after the war had closed. 1t il
true that there had been such clamor
based on the Onandaga outrage, tha
that iniquity has been Topped off. Bu
the body OF the tariff has not only no
been diminished but it really has beer
increased since that time.
Nobody kens these facts better thar
Tom Bsyne, of Pittsburg, who is the
principal spokesman of the Committee
in the examination of the manufacturers
who come before that body. But, beine
a good Republican, and bent on favorine
his idol of protection, there is no danger
of his telling what he knows,
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