The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-10-15
4 PROTECTION THAT HURTS MANY
OF ITS WARMEST SUPPORTERS.

4 Sample Illustration Of the Devious
ways In which Interferencs with Free.
dom Injuries Mankind-Colored Tissue
Paper n a Specialized Manufacture.
Various excuses are given for increas.
ing the duties on manufactures. Some
times the proposed object is to preserve
an industry threatened with destruction.
Sometimes it is to create an industry for
which some one processes to have dis
covered demand. Always, Of course,
there is the professed care Of the Ameri-
can workingman. Doubtless all these
reasons in turn were urged for the In
crease of the duty on tissue paper,
though certainly mono Of them properly
applies.
The former tariff was % per cent. ID
valorem; the Mckinley act increased it
to Is per cent. I'd valorem and eight
cents per pound. On the lower priced
papers the increase amounted to over $50
per cent. On . ream Of the lower priced
foreign paper the duty under the old law
amounted to thirty-two cents; under the
Mckinley scs i s%o W.T. d se Sgsa five
tho protection Of the American workmen
from the competition Of the ''pauper
labor" Of Europe, because the price cut
no figure In the competition between tho
domestic and foreign articles, either be-
fore or since the amendment Of the tariff
schedules. The lowest priced article Of
imported colored tissue paper costs far
moro at the mill in Europe than the best
product Of the American mills.
As q matter Of fact no American man.
ufacturer has cared to engage in the pro-
duction Of the wide range Of colors that
would be necessary to supply the de-
mand, even If he had tho monopoly Of
the entire trade Of the country. Colored
tissue papers in this country are used to
only limited extent compared with the
countries Of Europe. A single house In
Russia, for instance, handles more col
ored tissue paper than all the importers
Of America While in America it is
used principally to make flowers, lamp
shades and small house ornaments, and
only to limited extent at that, in
nearly all the countries Of Europe it is
put to great variety Of uses.
Several years ago . domestic manu-
facturer began the manufacture Of q
full range Of colors and produced q first
class article, but within three months
he had oversupplied the trade and be-
came his own competitor to such an ex-
tent that he literally drove himself out
OF the business. After failing to get an
importer to whom he applied to take the
mill OF his hands and run it on an offer
Of its use for three years for nothing, he
reconstructed the mill and went into
another business. He had practical
| monopoly Of the American trade while
he was in the business, and found that
with his single mill he could glut the
market with three months production.
As in several other cases in which the
tariff was increased by the Mckinley
bill for the purpose Of giving the domes-
! tic manufacturer moro complete mo-
nopoly Of the trade, the increased tax
has failed Of its object. There is no
more domestic paper made, and the de-
mand for the imported article continues
just about what it used to be under the
old tariff. The price Of the domestic ar
ticle went up from sixty cents per ream
to eighty cents directly after the increase
in the duty, but this was only q nomi-
nal, not an actual, increase. Within q
week, it is said, the domestic manufac-
turers began cutting prices, SO that now
they are lower, il anything, than they
were before the billion dollar congress
increased the duties.
The only perceptible effect Of the in
creased tariff has been to compel the
consumer to pay more for the paper he
uses and will continue to use, as it has
been demonstrated, in preference to the
poorer domestic article, Notwithstanding
the great increase in the duty.
Here, then, is an example Of an in
crease in the tariff that helps neither
manufacturer nor laborer, and only takes
from the consumer considerable sum
to be sent to the already overfowing
Golfers Of the national government. In
other words, users of tissue paper are
taxed to produce a revenue that the gov
eminent does not need, and professedly
to stimulate an industry for which there
Is little or no demand.