Sharp County record., 1891-04-30
COMPARING PRICES.

Labor-Saylng Machinery-Mchinley and
"Cheapness" Again.
e.n Iowa prolectionist paper prints
list of prices ''tallen from al ancient
book kept in Boonesborough during the
year 1851" aad compares with it cor
responding list of prices in 1890. The
prices in the list for 1890 are of course
much lower than in the list for 1854; and
the protectionist organ hastens to con-
ciude That "when the prudent housewife
compares the two sets of figures she
will feel that she is willing to live under
republican, regime and pay five cents
for tin cup that in 1854 cost four times
as much" The performance OF this
organ is fair sample of the cheap and
ignorant arguments put forth in defense
of protection by men who know abso-
lutely nothing about the changes in in
dustrial conditions affecting prices since
1854; or if they ale aware OF those
changes they ignore them and pretend
that protection is the force which has
reduced prices
This republican editor takes tin cup
as a Specimen of the reductions which
protection has caused. But the tin
plates of which tin cups are made, are
produced in Wales. How could our
protective tariff bring down the price
of tin plates? The truth is that the de-
velopment of the industry il Wales has
caused the cheapening of all the tin
ware in this country. The causes lead
ing to these developments are pointed
out by David A. Wells in his "Recent
Economic Changes" The first cause
was the cheapening of tin consequent
upon opening of mines in Australia and
on the straits OF Malacca. The sec
ond cause was the improvements in the
manufacture of iron and, owing to the
invention of the Bessemer steel process,
the substitution of steel plates in place
of charcoal and puddled iron plates.
The principle cause, however, is the
great improvement in the process of
timing the steel Sheets modern tin
plate mill turning out every twenty-four
hours more than double the product of
the old-fashioned mills, without any
increase in expenditure for motive pow
er or labor.
Besides these changes in the method
of production, still greater change
has come in the method of distribution.
Railroads and iron steamships have
revolutionized prices. There were al
most no railroad communications be-
tween Iowa and the east in 1854, as
compared with the great lines Of rapid
transportation to-day. Mr.. Edward
Atkinson shows that freight charge
between Chicago and New York in 1865
was 8. .45 cents per ton per mile and O,GS
of cent in 1885. How this cheapening
of railroad freights is still going on
may be seen from the fact that the
average rate on all classes of freight on
all the railroads of the United States in
1888 was 1926 cents per ton per mile,
and already in 1887 this had fallen to a
trifle above one cent
Another enormous factor in cheapen-
ing the commodities consumed by our
people to-day is the great reduction of
ocean freights caused by the use of
steel and of triple-expansion engines in
making ocean steamers. This reduc-
tion can be estimated from the fact that
the freight charge between Liverpool
and New York is now less than one
tenth of what it was in 1860. This low
ering Of freights by land and water has
increased the foreign demand for the
products Of our farmers, and has thus
tended to check the downward tend
ency of prices of these products.
The price of flour is given in these
lists as S4.S4N a hundred in 1854 and
S3.S4 in 1890. The cheapening of flour
even is claimed for protection; but if
the western farmers believed this the
protectionists would have q hard time
convincing them that protection is a
good thing Tor them. The only way in
which protection can possibly cheaper
flour is by driving our foreign GUS
toners to other markets by
reason of our high duties
on their products. But as a matter Of
fact the cheapening Of flour has not
been due so much to tariffs as to the in
venton of labor-saving machinery
The grain drill for planting and the
self-binder for harvesting wheat has
diminished the labor of the farmer to
a very low point. On producing the
crop Of 1887 in Dakota it was found
that the years labor produced $500
bushels Of wheat per man,
Since the war the roller mill pro-
cess Of grinding flour has been
Introduced into this country from
Hungary; and now one laborer can in
one year turn into flour the $500 BUSH
els of wheat Of the Dakota man. Thus
the labor Of two men produces 1,l00
barrels of -four in year, allowing five
bushels of wheat to the barrel, In
this, way, as David A. Wells points out,
american flour from the fields Of Da-
kota and the mills Of Minneapolis Is
sold in European markets ut rates
which arc detorminativc of the prices
which Russian peasants, Egyptian "fel-
labs and Indian "nyots" can obtain in
the same markets for similar grain
grown by thom on equally good soil,
md with from fifteen TO twenty cents
itNf lnv ,yntroa f,r hoir 1ohop