Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-05-21
Mckinley Prices and Hard Times.

Manufacturers who 90 tc Congress for
sprotection" and get it are not sentiment
alists. They mean business. Their object
is to increase their profits. By getting a
high duty put on imported articles such as
they themselves produce they exclude for
eign competition. Having done this they
raise their prices As a rule they add the
duty to the price they would sell at if there
were no tariff. If, for example, the price
of an unprotected article in the home mark
ct is So per dozen, the price of the same ar
ticle, after 30 per cent. duty is imposed,
will be $3.50, or more. 1t will be as much
more as the profits of importers and jobbers
on her competing foreign article amount to.
This is the charm of protection in the eyes
of the practical protectionist, that it enables
him to advance his prices, increase his pro-
fits and get big income on small capital
invested, perhaps, in old and obsolete ma
chinery. To the masses of the people the
system is Objectionable for the very reason
that its benefciaries like it. They object,
it is true, to an excessive enhancement of
the cost of imported articles, but they OBJ
.ject great deal more to the rigging of the
home market made possible by the tariff,
because it effects their pockets a great desl
more. For the custom house tax is the
least of the evils com planned of. The trib-
ute exacted by the factories is the greater
burden. Some SIX or seven dollars, it is
estimated, are lost by the people in the pur
chase of home made wares at prices en-
hanced by the tariff for every dollar the
government gets at the custom-houses on
imported wares. Ia the year 1889 the reve
nue. from customs that went to the treasury
at Washington was $223, 1872, 741, but the
revenue that went to protected manufac-
turers in the shape of excess of price due to
the tariff rates was not less than 81, $50, 000,-
600. In the case of articles upon which the
tariff is low the proportion of revenue OBJ
tanned by the treasury would, of course, be
large, but where the tariff rate is high lit
tbs will be imported, and the protected
manufacturers will get almost the whole
proceeds of the tariff tax. Right here it is
that the tariff becomes unequivocalIy an
odious tax on the people. One may say
that be does not care how much revenue
the government gets out of people who buy
foreign articles, because the revenue is for
public purpose. That would not be very
rational position to take, as many things
necessary to our comfort-tin- plate for ex-
ample-must be imported. But when the
rate is put so high that it prohibits the i'm
portation of needed articles, with the object
and result of depriving the governments of
revenue and giving the whole tax to the
manufacturers, everybody must cry out at
the injustice of the thing. Especially exss-
perating does such tariff become when we
see 1t utilized by the manufacturers in the
formation of trusts and other combinations
to prevent the arrival of the era of low
prices promised by protectionist orators as
the ultimate result of their system. With
the tariff as means of making their prices
all III, fhair 70 l.
them high, the protected class has, it is felt
an unfair advantage of the resr of the COM
munity. The farmers are not the only euf
ferers from this legalized plundering,
though, as being the largest distinct class
of sufferers, they are oftenest appealed to
act. Every citizen is equally concerned.
City people may, indeed, be,said TO be more
interested than the farmer. They suffer
first and most from increased cost Of living.
They must pay promptly in cash for all they
buy, while the farmer, even if he gets little
money, gets at least living out of his farm.
| The farmer, can, if he chooses, raise his
own bread, meat and material for clothing.
| If he earns enough to pay his taxes he can.
for year or two at least, keep his head
above water. Not so the city man. Every
day he must buy something, and if the Nc:
kinley bill puts up the price of clothing,
carpets, tnware, food, &c., he will feel it
at the end of the week in a deficiency of in
come. AS our city populati ons row con
sttute nearly half of the entire population
of the country, it is clear that MIR. McKin-
ley is about to injure an important section
of the body polite. That his proposed in
crease of the cost of living, through higher
taxes, is not dictated by an empty treasury.
but by a small class of selfish tariff lords,
adds to the unpopularity of his scheme.
| November will show him how odious it is.
|-BaHinoTe Sun.