The Forrest City times., 1891-08-14
DEPRESSING THE POOR.
some Facts About the Increased Duty on
 Corduroy Cloth.

DEPRESSING THE POOR. some Facts About the Increased Duty on Corduroy Cloth.
 Cheap corduroy is used for clothing by many thousands of workingmen, and . finer quality is used to some extent by the well to-do. It was to have been ex- pected that in making any change in tho tariff on corduroy eventhe framers of the Mckinley bill would have taken care that the increase should be no greater on the cheap than on the more expensive article. The contrary, however, is the fact The truth is that the increase on the finer goods is comparatively light while that on the poor is about 33h per cent Here are some eloquent figures furnished by a correspondent of the New York Euentng Post:
 Cheap grade. Dearer grade. Cost per yard in
 England. .17o 50c Cost ill the U, S.,
 duty free. .. .2l1ao coo Cost in the U. S.,
 under old tar
 if (35 per cent.
 ad valorem) .25ieo 79c Cost in the U. &,
 under Mckin-
 ley tariff Q4c
 per sq. yd plus
 2O per ct. ad
 valoreml ..... .S6o e2c Change in tariff
 increases cost.1o'ac or Al per ct. Sc or per ct. Mckinley tariff
 adds to duty
 free cost. ... .e6 per ct. 36 per ct
 This, however, does not tell the whole story. When the duty was increased no corduroy was mado in the United States. The owners of the Crompton Mills at Providence. R. l., however, wished to make corduroys, and after the duty had been increased in the original bill. 1t was still further increased in conference committee on the very night before the measure was passed. Senator Aidrich of Rhode Island is credited with having brought about this second increase of duty Since tho law went into effect the Crompton Nils Company has been experimenting with corduroy The company professes to be able to supply all that is needed but dealers deny this and importers affirm that the importa tions of corduroy have fallen off enor- mously because tho poor are no longer able to buy at the enhanced price. They must substitute some other and less satisfactory material because the Government of the United States has consented to discourage the importation of cheap corduroys in the interest of a single company of manufacturers.
 Josiah Ii. Fithian X Co of New York, are agents of the Crompton Company, and when a reporter of the Epentng Post asked Mir. F'ithian about corduroys here is what he said: "i have always found that the still pig gets the most swil.' And it is 'swilF that l am after, not the dissemination of information. Therefore-to your question-no.
 It would have been well for Mir. Fithian had he contented himself with this porcine reply. but for some curious req son he went on to say these things of the Mckinley bill and protection:
 "l don't know what was the aim of 1t. l don't know that the framers of the tariff had any aim. 1 sometimes think they hadn't. What aim, for instance, could they have had in requiring that every imported article should be stamped with the country of its origin? l heac they acted on the theory that Americans were so patriotic that, on seeing thing was foreign, they would buy something domestic. But would not sensible men know that Americans have sufficient human nature to buy what is the best value for their money, no matter where it comes from? ToI my pdIb, WHtHeNcT | Ro to Duy things for my personal use and goods are shown me, and am told that they are of domestic manufacture. nearly always pass them by, because experience has taught mo that almost invariably the foreign-made article is more substantial and the better bargain. In fact am by nature free-trader-one on the broad principle of Henry Ward Beecher, that all the world Is ono kindred, and that no kinsman has a right to set up barriers against the others. The Cromp- ton Mills did not need so high duty on corduroy; they would succeed better without it"
 Do you mean if they had no higher tariff than the old?"
 No; l mean without any tariff at all with absolute free trade True, wages would be reduced, but the purchasing power of money would so increase that the equalization would be perfect"