Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-10-23
PRICES AND THE TARIFF.

Because prices of many articles al
higher than a month ago or a year ag,
it is falsely alleged that the new tari
is making necessaries of life more cost.
The assertion has not even grain c
excuse in facts, though it is true tina
some dishonest and short-sighted dealer
are taking advantage of popular igno
rance, and marking up prices of good
which the tariff does not affect in tn
least, using that measure as thei
pretext. Consumers can punish thi
extOrtion, if they choose, by transferrin:
their trade to merchants who are NOR
honest. That they may have SOM
light to guide them, brief review o
prices may be timely.
Breadstuffe are higher than a month
ago, and much higher than year ago
and the reason which controls the trade
is found in the official report of tht
Department of Agriculture, showing
that the frosts of last winter and the
drouth last summer caused a loss OF
about 90,000,000 bushels of wheat, about
a fifth of the corn crop and about 300,
! 100000 bushels of oats. The tariff did
not cause either the frosts or the drouth,
nor has it caused the recent advance in
dairy products, nor the recent decline in
some vegetables and in cattle. With a
short crop of corn, hog products are
naturally higher, but the supply of hogs
has been so large that the effect is as
yet bnt little felt. Sugar, hops and rice
cost just what they did month ago,
and coffee is little lower. On the
whole, farm products are much dearer
than usual, but owing to causes with
which as yet the tariff has nothing to do.
Cotton is little lower than month
ago, while print cloths, Sheetings and
other cotton fabrics have not changed
in price. Wool is a shade higher, on
many grades about one cent per pound,
but no change has yet been made in
prices of wooden goods of domestic
make, and if higher prices are by any
body charged for imported woolens, it
is on goods which were imported at the
old rate of duties, so that an advance in
price is simply taking advantage of
customers. Carpets and flannels are
just as they were a month ago, and also
boots and shoes, but in the latter a
moderate advance was made some time
before the tariff passed, on account OF
the higher prices of hides and of leather.
Since the act has passed hides have not
changed at all and leather is little
lower. There has been no change in
iron or steel, or any of their important
products since the new bill passed. Tin
plates were advanced about one month
before the act passed by heavy buying
abroad in order to import into this
country, though the new duty does not
take effect until July l, 1891. Tin is
active in speculation, though the new
law makes no change for three years in
the duty, and copper has not changed in
price. Lead and products of lead had
advanced sharply before September, be-
cause of Influences existing prior to the
passage of the act Lumber and brick
are lower than a month ago, and lime,
lath, glass, paints, and paper are un-
changed.
The truth is that the new tariff does
not enhance the cost of single necessary
of life, but reduces the duties on many.
If higher prices are charged by dealers
for any necessary of life, and the tariff
is mentioned as an excuse, the customer
may know that he is being cheated, and
he can find more honest traders who
make no such exaction. The cost of
living has indeed been enhanced by the
partial failure of important crops, and
the effect of that serious loss is not yet
fully felt perhaps. But there is no man
ufactured product, in any measure a
necessary of life, the cost of which has
up to this time been affected in the
least by the tariff. The political trick
sters who pretend the contrary need
the merited correction of defeat in
November.