Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-10-10

largest importers in the city, summarized the
situation thus "There has been general
advance in all commodities, but owing to the
ylutted condition Of the market, brought
ibout by excessive importation, stimulated
by an increase of duties, it will be extremely
iifficult for importers and Wholesale mer
chants to obtain any marked advance in
prices. Nothing so disturbs the regularity
IF trade as constant changes in the tariff law.
It unSettleS the market and cOnfuSeS values
The merchants will be benefited by the new
tariff, as the tendency toward new prices is
inevitable. 1t is the consumer who will Suf-
FER The advance in prices without increase
in wages OF incomes must necessarily dlmin-
sh the demand for goods to the extent OF the
advance in values. 1t is plainly perceptible
that consumers will have to economiZe to that
extent. A summary ofjhe business situation,
in its relation to Workingmen especially, is
something like this: Old tariff, Al per cent:
ne W tariff, 90 per cent; wages, stationary;
result, pinclIing economy and privation to
millions OF consumers"
Some startling changes will be made by the
new law if not Immediately, within the next
two or three months. The time will not be
so long that consumers will forget what they
heretofore paid for the same articles, and the
poor consumers are the ones whose memories
should best be logged, for it is upon the arti-
cles they use that the heaviest exactions are
laid. Imitation kid gloves, for instance,
which could be bought at Lexington street
store for seventy-five cents will be wholly
driven from the market by the high prices at
which they will have to be sold to pay the DIT
ties, Genuine kid gloves, which the rich buy,
will be sold, as heretofore, at 81 per pair. The
rich, who could afford to pay the increase,
will not be compelled to do so. The poor
must 60 without even imitation kid gloves, Oh
pay 81 for genuine ones, which, as rule,
they have not been able to do. Such toys as
five-cent pOcket-kniveS are also driven out OF
the market, OF must be sold for ten cents.
Street fakirs of knives will be deprived OF
their business or must sell twenty-ive-cent
for fifty cents, and it is predict
ed they will not get much trade at these fig
ures. The little bootblack's stock in trade
hereafter cost him Is instead
of 10 cents, and good brush in proportion.
The man who has been content to smoke a
tive-cent cigar and enjoy it had just as we'll
prepare to give up either of two things-the
cannot go together, and what is the use Of
one without the other? The duty on Sumatra
with which all smokable cigars are
wrapped, is increased from about IS cents per
pound to 81 per pound. Tobacco of that grade
cannot be grown in America any more than
get very good cigar for 10 cents-the kind
he has always smoked But five-cent cigars
will not disappear. Heretofore they have
had part Havana filling and Sumatra wrap
they will have no Havana filling; if they have
Havana filings they will have 10 Sumatra
wrappers. Cigars selling for two for FIVE
cents will have neither. A dealer said that
smokers are SO accustomed to Sumatra wrap
pers that they will not do without them, even
if the duty were 81 per pound. 1t is thought
that such an increase in duty as that on SUI
matra tobacco will result in ''doctoring'' Gig
ars to such an extent that they will prove
very injurious The Republicans had prom
ised to take off the tax of 8 cents per pound on
tobacco. but they found their pension bills so
large that they had to keep on the tax, at least
a part of it. The reduction to 6 cents was an
ticipated i'll June by tobacco dealers, and they
simply advanced the price two cents a pound
The dealer, not the consumer, has obtained
the benefit which should have followed the
reduction.
The increase in the price of champagne,
which the rich will drink while they smoke
their ten and tifteen-cent cigars, is about SO
cents per bottle, not enough to deter any one
who can afford champagne from purchasing
a bottle. Champagne nippers are among the
few articles i'll the hardware trade not affect
ed by the new tariff, and it is stated that poor
people have not much use for them. Brandy
goes up so cents per gallon. Opium is admit
cents per pound. Codliver oil is increased
from S. to $3.50 per barrel. Sugar of milk for
infants is increased cents per pound. The
tin in a five. cent can will hereafter cost over
4 cents That same can, with no more and
no better contents, will hereafter sell for 10
cents
In dress goods the general advance is II per
cent. The increase eliminates in pearl shirt
and dress buttons, being from $50 to 200 per
cent. The general effect is to increase domestic
goods three OF four times their present price.
Towels that heretofore cost wholesale So per
dozen will sell for 1920; handkerchiefs for
merly selling at 81 per dozen will be put on
the market at 81. 10. Jersey cloth will be adj
vanced 30 per cent. above present cost; velvet
10 to 20 per cent; cotton velvets, 10
cent cotton 10
20 per cent; silk and cotton plushes, 80 per
cent. cotton hosiery, Is to % per cent silk
hosiery (for the rich) 7 per cent; wool
hosiery, 10 per cent; wool underwear, 10 per
10 to Is per cent. These figures
as in other cases, do not altogether represent
the percentage of increased duty, but the ac-
tuai advance in price of the articles necessary
to compensate importers.
The advance in imported cloth for mems
Suitings is from to IL per cent; but Balti-
more dealers say that this advance is COM
para tively so small that tailors will not make
more charges; that trousers which heretofore
cost S15 or so will cost the same. One i'm
porter thought it probable that tailors might
try to make the fifty cents additional imposed
by the new law, by reducing the wages now
set by cutters and trinlmers. In this he an
ticipated strike, as all cutters and trimmers
are organized into unions
The cheap glass vases with which the poor
which have heretofore cost say 81, will here
after cost $3.50. More handsome vases for
elegant parlors of the rich are increased only
Is per cent Children who have gone into
raptures over toy tea sets must give up the
raptures or the toys, for the increase here is
loo per cent, from 81 to 50 per set. This in
crease is not on the toys but ON the packages.
Upon the same principle opera glasses will
cost % and so cents each more than formerly.
Dinner plates which heretofore cost say 90
1n1,ts how ffn,.o
orated they will cost 81. The increase in the
price of silverWare is due to the advance in
5he price OF silver on account of the new sill
yer coinage law, not to any increase in duty.
America is already ahead of Europe in the
of jewelry. There is no increase
planned by jeWeler, any higher duty would
be an incentive to smuggling. A Congress
man, who receives SIS per day, will not have
20 pay more for diamond brooch for his
eeiying 81 per day, have a tin dinner pail
without paying four times its value. A ten
follar musical instrument will hereafter cost
s12. Five cents will buy only half as many
slate pencils as formerly. A tifteen-dollar
gun will cost $50 The duty on blacksmith's
anvil will be ~ cents per pound instead of 2
cents. One-dollar hair brushes will cost 81 %.
9uinine hair tonic will cost 81 per bottle in
stead of rs cents.
The much oppressed farmer was not over
ooKeQ by MI Mckinney. his wheat, not
oushel of which is ever imported, is protected
. cents a bushel. He exports hundreds of
Millions of bushels every year His hens
eggs are protected at the rate of five cents per
lozen. The cattle which he never imports are
aXed $40 per head. But hardship imposed
Upon the truckers of Maryland and Virginia,
md just as abominable as that tax on tin
'ans, in which are packed their peaches, corn.
omatoes and other vegetables, is that duty
IN imported beans and peas. Truckers are
compelled annually to buy peas for seeding
purposes. not because they cannot save them
Turing a winter, but because they are unfit
nate and soil the pea deteriorates in quality.
It is only in Canada that it grows and
hrives, and each spring the trucker has pro-
ured his peas for seeding from Canada. Now
ne must pay twice as much as heretofore for
hese peas.
Ex-President Rutherford B. HAYES.