Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-03-07
-.-,.o,ast Claims Made That Agri-
cultural Implements are
Taxed As Per Cent.
...irn Plows of8o Inferior Grade
That They Would not be
Used in America.
,r-,,o+ Consul Dunlap Says in Re-
gard to the Matter Conpe-
rtion out of Question

Of al dishonest charges made by the
70, ut Trotpction, that which says farmers
'rs faxed As per cent. or their agricultural
;aa,,jaments is, perhaps, the most ground
as! A simple illustration wild make tins
yi r.. farmer Iuys plow Of the local
ont for saw. SO. The 'reformer des-
,sratelr bent on weaningithatarmers from
t5irniIegiances to protection, comes along
mi tells The farmer that the tax on That
rIov is IS per cent. The good man takes
l,tbis ppncil, multipies the price he paid
y-,Is rate per cent and finds that, if the
G-afornler'' tells the truth, the tax is.S5 40.
NIL .raformer' knows that the farmer
aiIl arrive at this result, and ne also
know. how absurd it Is, but he takes good
care not to correct the figures.
Nov. even if the farmer did pay the
rbola &c the As per cent. tariff, the
,r,aItnt of the tax is nothing like this
nm The auty is not computed on the
rs,4d price 3l2, but on the wholesale
rrirp which at most, is not more than half
afthis amount. Suppose, then, that the
wholesale price of the American pillow IS
n ANY honest free trader will admit
that the As per cent. tariff is not paid by
tbo consumer unless equally good foreign
nl,w. can be'imported, and, with duty add
al beplaced in the American market at
sGapiece. But the As per cent. must not
he computed on the S. which the pillow
brings in this country, but upon the
prjea of the English or German manutac-
tam. which price. With the As per cent.
duty added. must equal Sc. That Is, in
stsad of multiplying So by As, which
would give 1910 as the tariff, s. must be
divided bv As to obtain the true base, the
pricp i'm the foreign market. The price of
HIS would be 81 IA, and As per cent of,
would be Slsb the true duty, which
added to the price, gives just S., the
nrice at which i aust sell here, in order
tocompete with the American plow The
"tax then, even according to the re
formers" own theory, would be only 81 50,
instead of s. 40, as he designedly uled to
lead the farmer to suppose.
Even these figures do not do justice to
the "reformers daring in pervertlng truth.
The calculation is based, as has been said,
upon tine assumption that a foreign made
plow. equal in all respects to the American
piow could be placed upon the market at
SIS. the price at which the latter sells. Now
the fact is that such conditions do not ex-
ist In no country in the world can the
equal Of the American pillow be found, The
best agricultural implements IN foreign
countries are only clumsy limitations OF
Anticipated American models.
Consul II. L. Dunlap attended the an
nual exhibition Of agricultural machinery
at BresIau Germany, for the special pur-
pose of comparing the machinery from
many countries which was there displayed.
The plOws, he reported to the state de
partment, resemble the double Michigan
pillow so popular in the United States TWEEN
ty and more years sagO, but now about
obsolete. am perfectly safe in saying
that no American farmer would take a
single one Of the plows Oh exhibition as a
gift. He would be ashamed to be seen in
its company; it looks very much as though
1t was the work of a country blacksmith of
forty years ago"
Competition by foreign agricultural i'm
pements in our own markets would be out
Of the question, even if they were admit
ted trae--nay, even if we paid bounty of
fifty per cent, foreign implements could
not compete, for the simple reason that nc
American farmer would take the heavy
ngainly things at any price. Since, as
We have said before, the tariff can be a
tax only when the American consumer
would just as soon have the foreign arti-
ce. with duty added, as the American
article at the domestic price, the absurdity
otthe assumption that the farmer pays even
slst tariff tax must be plum to any
one whose intellect is not clouded by the
free trade mania.