The record-union., 1891-04-04
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE.

the policy of protecting American indus
tries against the undue competition of
conditions which have ground the labor
ing classes Of Europe into hopeless pow
erty, is opposed to and viii continue to
oppose unreasonable impost duties in the
interest of trusts and monopolies It is
not little strange, however, to note that
the standard argument in favor OF high
will become cheaper by reason of the en-
couragement to production this protec-
ton affords. The sugar industry of
America has enjoyed protection from al
most time immemorial, and yet we find
one of the most extreme of our high
protection contemporaries saying: I'm
refined sugar yesterday took its place on
the free list, and the duties, which vary
from two to two and a half cents, ought
to come off the selling price"
Thus, after q policy of protection of
many years-time at least sufficient to
demonstrate the truth of the theory that
protection will eventually result in cheap
ening the article-our extreme high pro-
lection contemporary declares that the
removal of the duty Of two to two and a
half cents ought to reduce the price of
unrefined sugar to that amount. Then it
follows that high protection does raise the
price and that its maintenance maintains
the price, and that, after many years of
protection Of the product, the price out
side of the tariff wall has been lowered
and that it did not become low inside that
wall; and hence the removal of the duty
of two to two and half cents should at
least be deducted from the present price
of unrefned sugar.
This incident tells the whole story in
an unmistakable way, High protection
does not eventuate, under existing con-
ditions, in a low price for the domestic
article, and chiefly because domestic
competition has ceased to exist and COM
binations and trusts have taken its place.
1t is also noteworthy that the duty being
removed on unrefined sugar has given
the retiners simply raw material at
lower price. The public do not use unre-
fined sugar any more than the public
wear unwoven wool. There is still a
high rate of tariff on the refined article.
The Mckinley bill simply provided that
the refiners should receive their raw
material at a lower price, and since it is
well known that the sugar trust of Amer
lea has combined all the refneries practi-
cally into one ownership, it follows that
the free list so far as unrefned sugar is
concerned amounts to bonus to the
sugar refiners.
Another of the standard arguments of
the high protectionists is that the foreign
producers pay the tariff on all imported
articles. Now if the foreign producer
pays the tariff on unrefined sugar, how is
it that article should be cheapened, when
the tariff is removed, to the American
consumer. Our high protection con-
temporary, the CAL, already quoted,
would probably contend with all the
other absurdities of the theory, that the
producer Of unreined foreign sugar paid
the duty himself and that the domestic
consumer paid none of it; and yet we
find it saying that unrefned sugar yester-
day took its place on the free list, that the
duty heretofore imposed upon it being
removed, the price to the consumer ought
TO go down. If the American consumer
did not pay the duty heretofore, why
should its removal make any difference
to him? If the whole sum of revenue de-
rived from the tariff on sugar was paid
by the foreign producer, and no part of it
was charged to the American consumer,
then the free list accomplished nothing
for the consumer, but accomplished
everything for the producer, and the free
list becomes simply bonus to the for
eign producer.
The practical result of free unrefned
sugar will be, as already indicated, a
bonus to the American refiner and not to
the American consumer. The cell says
'If the supply is equal to the demand,
the factories ought to be able to sell granu
lated sugar at from 3 to 4 cents pound" !"
The refners do not stop to consider what
they ought to do in the premises. They
combine so as to eliminate competition
and then ask their own price. They Sc
cured the abolition Of the tariff on unre-
fined sugar under the pretense that sugar
will be cheaper to the American con-
sumner, and then repudiated the doctrine
that the foreign producer pays the tariff
The underlying truth is that the consumer
pays all the impost duties, and that the
removal of the tariff on unrefned sugar
viii operate as a bonus to the American
refner. The way to give the American
consumer of sugar cheap article is to
take the tariff off of that class of sugar
which he consumes, not from the materi-
ais out of which the article is made.
OF course the self-respecting physician
viii not seek publicity as physician for
The purpose of advertising himself. But
we cannot understand why the physicians
of New York should even have discussed
the question how far it is consistent with
a proper code of professional ethics for a
physician to express his views upon any
medical question in the secular news
papers by means of letters and Inter
yiews.n The doctors cifTered- of cnl1rse