St. Paul daily globe., 1891-06-18
THE TARIFF FAILURE.

A leading object of the MCKINLEY
measure, as insisted in its development,
was to reduce imports from abroad, In
no important line has it had that result
as yet, but it is asserted that many of
the tin factories in Wales are to close
III July on account of the falling away
of the demand in this country. 1t is
not really insisted that the manufacture
i'll the United States is sufficient to ac-
count for the closing of the mills. 1t is
probably true that some OF the Welsh
mills will take a rest next month. when
the tariff comes into effect, as they have
been flooding the country in view of
the tariff, and it will take time to ex-
haust the supply. But the pre-
dlctionS of reduction of i'm
ports and the transfer of man
ufacturing plants and capital from the
old to the new world have not ma
terialized. There have been more
industries forced to establish a part or
the whole of their plants outside of the
United States than have been driven to
it by the high tariff. The United States
consul general at Frankfort. Mr. MASON,
has made an investigation as to the
effect of the higher duties upon imports
from Germany. They have not de-
creased, but are larger than be-
fore. He finds that this is
general fact in European coun-
tries. Even i'll Austria, where the
consul says ''wide-spread ruin was
foretold as the result of American tariff
legislation, the returns for the quarter
just past (under the MCKINLEY bib show
net increase of 81, ,6S4, ,S9S. 97'' over the
same period of the preceding year. He
gives figures showing the increase in
several of the countries. The tariff
there has, SO far as these statistics go,
been failure TO meet the claims made
for it. The wool politicians of Ohio
were allowed to shape the duties
on raw wool, yet they have failed
TO get any higher figures for their
wool, and the importations have very
greatly increased. Some of the wooden
manufactures, especially carpets, are
more largely imported than before, al
though the duty on woolens and wool
was to keep them out. The manufact-
urer abroad gets the ASiatic woods for
20 cents, while the American rival has
to pay So cents for the same wool, and,
consequently, the foreign article takes
the market Of this country. This is not
the entertainment the carpet makers of
Philadelphia looked for, and they are
not quite happy at the situation. The
Philadelphia Telegraph, a protection
journal that supported HARRISON and
the tariff policy, now talks in this way
in speaking of the effects of the tariff:
II has also failed in another way. in that
Il has not had the effect to indu ce any ma
terial transfer of foreign capital or of manu-
featuring plants to this country. What it
has not failed TO do, and it was predicted
ii would do, was to induce foreign Workmen
to come to the United States They have
come in numbers greater than ever before.
exceeding even the year 1855, which was the
banner year of immigration. The new tariff
has not decreased The value of importa tions
from Europe; ithas not caused great influx
of foreign capital and manufacturing plants:
it has not increased the wage rate, which il
has kept down, and is certain to put lower
by encouraging the immigration of foreign
worSingmen. Time may change all this;
but after rial of nearly three-quarters of a
year 1t must be conceded that ihe Mckinney
bill has done the things which its authors
said 1t would not do, and it has not done the
things which they said it would do.
Its view is not encouraging to those
WHO hold that the tariff has indicated