The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-10-30
The Tariff and the Decline in Prices.

4 0V A0A4A 0AN VIZ ~VNAAAV AA 4 AANV0s
The republican press and the speak
ers Of the party as well are claiming
before the people and the country
that the tariff is entitled to the credit
Of bringing prices below what they
were half a century ago. This claim
they apply to manufactures and man.
ufactured articles of all kinds. The
decline in the prices Of all such ar
ticles has been greater in what is
KNOWN as free trade England than in
this country with its high protective
tariff.
1t is strange that sensible people
should accept such theory as that
q tax made things taxed cheaper, and
manufacturers who ask it for that
reason ought to blush at the cheek
it requires to make such statement
or demand.
Only few years since steel cost
over 800 a ton, and in five years by
reason of the Bessamer process OF
producing it. fell to less than $50 a
ton.
With the Improvement in machin-
cry for carding, spinning and weav-
ing, and with the rapidity in manu-
featuring clothing from the use Of
sewing machines, came the reduction
in the price of clothing.
improvements in the methods OF
making boots and shoes enables one
person to turn out as much work as
twenty men could forty years ago,
and this has brought down their
price.
Print paper that cost Is cents q
pound, now sells for about 81 cents.
The process at the higher price was
when it was made from rags, costing
nearly twice as much per pound as
the paper costs now. Machinery and
and the invention for making it from
wood caus ed the decline in price in
stead of the tariff.
The reason why the great mass Of
mankind are not benefited by these
cheap methods Of supplying their
needs of various kinds as fully as
they they should have been, is that
the combinations and trusts have
been favored by the legislation of the
past thirty years to such an extent
that they control the output OF mines
and factories, fix the price upon pro-
ducts and labor, regardless of supply
and demand, making their own
greed and the ability of the public to
bleed the measure Of eXtortion.
These trusts and combinations set
all economic laws ut defiance. Great
fog a scarcity where there is abund-
anee. or producing over production
at commercial centers when there il
really shortage the country over.
These trusts have planted themselves
in our country, their roots extending
across the ocean, and finding nourish-
saaent from the money lords OF Lom-
bard street, whose interests are close
" identified with the same class in
Wall Street
The intelligent reader can easily
without much effort extend this list
almost indefinitely.
The Greatest among the trusts is
the MONEY TRUsTs known as the
National Banking system, whereby
the government has surrendered to a
corporation one of it's highest pre-
negatives, the making and issuing to
the people the money that they may
use, thereby enabling these banking
corporations to supply all the other
trusts with the money to carry On
the nefarious work OF robbing pro-
duction, labor and business by cora
ering the supply OF currency needed
for business prosperity.
The Copper Trust with headquar-
tiers in Paris. the next greatest OF all
trusts.
The Salt Trust with headquarters
in London
The wire-rod trust, German
The Steel rail trust, international
The standard oil trust, (American.)
The ore trust, (American.)
The sugar trust, (American.)
The lead trust, (American.)
The nail trust, (American.)
The iron beam trust, (American.)
The wall paper trust, (American.)
The shoe-lace trust, (American.)
The lumber trust, (American.)
The coal trust, (American.)
The coke trust, {American.)
The brick trust, (American.)
The screw trust, (American.)
The rope trust. lAmerican.)
The glass trust, (American.)