The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-07-18
FOREIGN y NJ ERs.
They Get American Goods Lower Than
Americans.

EoUTi"N NONSt
They Get American Goods Lower Than
Americans.
On June 90 the editor of the Agricultur-
al Implement Heraldof indianapolis, Ind.
called the attention of A. b. Farquhar.
president of the big manufacturing firm
of York. Pa, to an editorial in the In
dianapolis News. saying that the firm
sold its goods to foreigners at a rate
smaller than that charged Americans.
TO that inquiry Mr.. Farquhar has made
reply, which not only admits the fact,
but places the blame for it upon the in
Equities of the Mckinley tariff. 1t goes
further and shows that by means of 1t
the price of American woods has been
lowered % per cent, although the tariff
upon foreign woods was nearly doubled.
The exclusion of the foreign woods nee
essary for mixing with American woods
to make the right quality of goods has
been very great by reason of the increas-
ed duties, and the demand for the Amer
lean ~tieeces has been correspondingly
lessened. This has caused the remark
able falling off in the price of the Amer
lean article. The letter is as follows:
YORK, Pa, July |, 1S91.-M. II. Hy-
man, General Manager. indianapolis,
Ind. Dear Sir: | take pleasure in ac-
knowlcdging your letter of June % re-
fcrring to AN editorial in the indianapolis
News.
The News is correctly informed. We
do sell goods from , to 10 per cent
cheaper directly TO customers in foreign
countries and to jobbrrs for export than
we do to the domestic trade. This |
could not truthfully deny MOI candidly
conceal.
You would like to learn the process
by which thu" manufacturer "can afford
to sell the foreign buyer goods for less
than he can the home consumers" The
reply is simplicity itself. | receive the
prices current in the markets in which |
sell can not get more and could not
be expected to take less.
The embargo upon competition Of out
side producers and upon raw material
advances the price of goods in this coun-
try beyond any figure possible for it to
reach in countries where the law visits
the consumer with a smaller measure of
ingenious malignity. In our export trade,
. however. We have occasionally some ad-
vantage in the drawback upon imported
raw material. This advantage is of less
importance to us because of the onerous
conditions by which recovery of the
drawback is attended; but it has its legit-
innate effect, nevertheless, in giving the for
eigner our goods on better terms than
our own cOuntrymen can obtain. We
sell abroad in free markets at the
!, scantiest margin of profit. On many of
Our plows for export we have less than
!, 81 margin for our hands and ourselves;
our raw material beams, handles, cast
ings, steel plates, wrought bar, in the
rough-costing within that figure of
what we realize on the product. Raw
material, | need not explain. is here used
= in it's proper meaning, material in the
. condition in which it comes to the
!. factory. The raw material of u in
! dustry is frequently the finished product
ef another.
am in cordial sympathy with the
American farmer and welcome every in
= dication that he objects to paying an
excess of price. l would cheerfully ex.
Z change the higher domestic prices which
protection" compcls the purchaser tc
pay upon our goods for the immense a d
vantages which free raw material would
give us in both home and foreign
s markets. Free markets all around would
). be almost as great a relief to us as to the
American consumer.
The wool growers of Indiana and Ohio
were taught to believe that the Mckin.
4; ley bill would give them better prices
But what is the result! The embargo
upon foreign woods has closed many OF
u our large wooden mills, throwing the
. workmen out of employment. The fine
a American woods are no longer in demand
= for mixing. and as a consequence the
y farmer is getting from 4 to D cents {
9 pound less for his wool than before the
Mckinley bill was enacted-besides pay
: ing more for his clothing, carpets ant
other woolens. Indeed, the history o
our tariff legislation tends to prove tina
the higher the tariff upon wool the lowe
the price to the American wool grower
because of the necessity of mixing differ
!. cnt growths in one fabric. There wa
. double the present number of sheep il
y Pennsylvania in the days of compare
" lively free wool.
. This is the conclusion of the Who'll
y matter: That If the American farmc
H. L. wishes to enjoy the twofold advantage G
~, the lowest possible price in the purchas
of his supplies, and the best prices fo
!. his wheat, corn and cotton exported {
IL pay for them, the tariff embargo must b
III rrnIovpd Very ~IpSDpctfully,