The Forrest City times., 1891-09-25
Cause of Their Cost.

why have fruit jars cost so much dur Ing the present season? That is the question that many good housewives have been asking themselves. With ex- celient fruit going to decay because they were not able to pay the high prices for jars, they have looked forward with feeling of regret for the pies of canned peaches, apples and other kinds of fruit which they will miss next winter
 Do our women know what there is be- hind this great rise in the price of jars? It Is trust, tariff trust, and 1t has taken advantage of the large fruit crop to collect the protective tariff spells which the McKinleyites have guaranteed to It The tariff on glass jars for fruit is 10 per cent on tho best kinds and still higher on the cheaper grades Besides this. glass jars are very expensive things to pack and ship, being very liable to break In handling; and as the new law makes 10 allowance for glass broken in shipment from abroad, unless the part broken Is as much as one-tenth of the whole, the domestic manufacturers get the benefit of still gher protection. 7 ;,
 Whenever, therefore, an importer buys $lO worth of glass fruit jars in Europe he is compelled to pay s4 and more as penalty for bringing them in- to this country. This $4 is then added to the price of the jars and it keeps on aecumulating in the hands of the vari- ous dealers till 1t reaches the farm where this tax is finally paid Every dealer gets back the tariff price he paid ana more; the farmers wife has no way of getting hers back she foots tho entire bill and pockets the loss
 This is fair specimen of protective ha frttt iap fow posed to keep foreign jars from com peting with those made here, and 1t ac- complishes this so thoroughly that we do not import enough of these jars to make them worth mention in the Government reports Foreign jars were to le kept out in order to encourage do- nestle manufacturers, and this object Is also accomplished aS Is shown by tho way in which these precious domestic manufacturers have combined and put mp prices during the past few months.
 Che of the men in this fruit-jar trust made snug fortune this summer The story is told in late number of the National Glass Budget, an organ pub ltshed in the interests of the glass makers This paper prints an account of tho resumption of work after the summer rest in the fruit ar factories. The factories opened. says the Budget, in tho midst of the widest boom in the glass fruitjAr trade since 1s7a Behind tho boom there Is most inter tho Whitney Glass Works at Giassboro, \. l.. hAve scoopcd up clear profit
 Two years ago Whitney Bros found thcmsolvcs in . position where It was to their advantage to take tho entire prod act of an outside factory which ran on jars for them Tho Whitrcys' own mills continued to turn ont the usual amount, and tho trade looked with horror upon the jars, which were piled up Into tho thousand gross.
 .At tho beginuiny of the season combinAt ton was mAde In which 1t was Aereed to maintain the price At s7. 30 ' gross Tho whitneys were In. but oven this com hinAtion did not let the Osherx rest easy. W hen tho boom came the Whitncys had about 4s. GOO gross of jars on hand, and they were the masters of tho situation. Up Jumped the price. It roso quickly from g to s7,50, to Ss. 30. to Si050, to osl |; and to Sll .s0. and still Whitney Hros. had thonsa of jars They could not ship them fast enough carloads have been going daily from the
 
 yet but small fraction Of the demand was met Prices continued to jump, and Tue day offers as high as SIP and Sl4 gross wore made without securing the jars The resumption of work st the factories will have no appreciable effect on the market"
 This is distinct case of tariff rob bcry. Any one can see that If the pro- tective tariff did not prevent the impor- tation of foreign made jars there would have been supply of them here to meet the large demand, and that the New Jersey mon could not then have ileeced the women of Sao0. GOO. In order to zen courage domestic industry" the Mckin- Myites turn over oil the farmers wives to the tender mercy of a grssping mo- nopoly made up of few jar manufac- turers Is 1t not sin and shame thus to put 1t into the power of half dozen mon to lay tribute upon thousands of households?