Nevada County picayune., 1891-10-08
THREE MAIN POINTS.

Hon. John C. Carlisle makes an interesting statement of the progress of the investigation of the practical working of tariff laws TOW being con- ducted under the supervision of the subcommittee of the Senate Com mittee on Finance. He shows that that it is not mere investigation into the effects of the Mckinley bill. i but that it will extend to tariff laws Tn general A list of more than 200 articles in common use among the people has been agreed on, and as the wholesale and retail prices of these will be given as far as possible Foreign prices will be given for com parison. There has long been need of such statistics, and until they are readily obtainabIe in trustworthy shape the subject will always be diff fcult to present in it's true light,
 If these statistics are to tell the truth they must cover a period of at least fifty years, and if for that pc riod they are reliable they will show: l:
 l. A steady decline in the prices of manufactured goods in the mar. Eota of tho u.OrlJ
 ,. That this decline is due to in creased production.
 ,. That the increased production is due to the cumulative increase in laborsaving machinery.
 i. That as this increase in labor saving machinery is cumulative, the prices will be lowest in the latest years of the perlod examined wher- ever production or distribution is not checked by exceptional means; that is, by means which make an cXcep- tion to the general results from la bOr-saving machinery.
 Now from the standpoint of those To whom the investigation of the eff fleets of the tariff is daily work, there are three points of paramount importance, and if these are lost sight of in the compilation of these statistics the statistics wi l be valueless or misleading. They are (a) heme price, (b) foreign price, (c) the date of the introduc- ton of the labor saving machinery cheapening the price of the article under consideration. Suppose we take nails as an example. Then what is needed is a table giving the London price hy decennial periods, the New York price by the same pe- riods and with this the dates of the introduction of improved machinery for making cut nails and later on of the invention of the machine for making wire nails.
 With this we can see at once, not only the effect of the tariff, but of the greater forces behind the tariff In the case of the iron nail hammer ed out by hand at greater labor cost to the cut nail made by ma chinery at less labor cost, and from the cut nail to the nail of drawn wire, the result of an invention which has made a further important reduction in labor cost.
 With these three points brought out in parallel columns in connection with several hundred articles in gen eral use, the whole subject of the tariff will be SO simplifed that a child who has learned arithmetic as far as long division can easily under stand it in a few hours study.
 They can be brought out and the whole subject covered in tables of a few dozen pages. Such tables, if reliable, would be worth more than the tons of volumes of commercial statistics already extant. They would show the modern industrial move ment for period long enough to make both it's causes and effects per fectly plain. Anything short of this will he relatively worthless, no mat ter how impartial the collection and