The Forrest City times., 1891-12-25
DEMOCRATIC MATTERS.
THE CARPET COLLAPSE.
The Taria . Tsx oa csasame-s That
 Must Be Collected.

\
 The Taria . Tax ea Consumers That Must Be CsII-etei. When the tariff against competition benefits the manufacturer in the mo- nopolized market the Szx must be added to the price at whicn the goods are sold And then the goods must be sold
 This is the rub' of monopoly tax afion- The tariff is always a tax on the consumer. but until the consumer consumes. the tax added to price can not be collected. As it is easy to lead horse to water. but hard tO make him drink. so 1t is easy to put high tariff prices on the consumer. but hard to make him consume under them That Is. every increase in price from high taxation or from any other cause cuts down consumption The people are taxed whether they buy or not for tax they cannot afford to pay. is still tax but until it is paid il is not a profit to the benefclarics Of taxation
 This is beautifully illustrated by the way the Protectionists carpet manu- lecturers overreaehed themselves As soon as they had got their schedule of taxes through in the Mckinley bill they advanced prices and loaded up with carpets. prepared to double their fortunes at once. Bat their high prices reduced consumption; their high-priced stocks were left on their hands and they are now unloading them in New York at auction at what they can get for them-selling them SO cheap that Canadian dealers have been buying rather than buy English goods.
 Verify the tariff is tax that has to be collected before it becomes 6 mo nopoIists profit,
 On October 2i last Mir. Arthur I. Lyman. treasurer of the great Lowell Carpet Works wrote and published a letter on the Mckinley bill explaining the collapse in one or two lucid sem te-IceS
 Immediately after the passage of the Mckinley bill he says the price of stock in the Lowell carpet works went up because the price of carpets advanced That increased the profits of the company for a time. because it had wool on hand at the old and lower price and was selling carpets at a new and higher price The price of the shares advanced. not <57, as he (Re- publican Candidate Allen) says. but sI00. But dull trade has begun to tell on the prsces. which have fallen again. and yet the annoying restric- tions and antiquities of the law re- main"
 One thing is certain" Mir. Lyman adds the manufacturers who asked for and obtained higher duties hoped for and expected higher prices They were not fools enough to think they could make money by putting down prices Prices have ts1rnbled about their ears much to their disgust
 This is the view of a practical car pet-maxer. not of a free-trade theo- rist. ]" and he says further. that if il is the McKinley bill that has advanced costs and reduced prices to the disgust of the manufacturers. is 1t also the Mckinley bill that has brought to a standstiIl more looms than have prob ably been idle for ten years
 This last shows the programme for the future. Having bitten of more than it can chew the carpet combine is obliged to unload at auction to get ready money. but it has stopped more looms than have been idle in ten years. to save wages and 10 so reduce supply that it can once more get control of the market so as to re-establish Me- hinley prices. St Louis Republic