The Forrest City times., 1891-05-01
IMPORTED INDUSTRIES.
WHY A GERMAN MANUFACT- URER DID NOT BUILD HERE.
Tho High Tax on Raw Materials Fright ened Him-This Tax Would Keep Him Out of the Worlds Market-Pauper Las Dor and Pauper Goods.

Tho High Tax on Raw Materials Fr Cht- ened Him-This Tax Would Keep Him
 Out of the Worlds Market-Pauper Las Dor and Psuper Goods.
 The high Mckinley duties on many kinds of goods have already compelled some European manufacturers to set up factories in the United States to get their part in the tariff spells, and still others will doubtless be induced to open branch establishments here.
 Republican organs print news about these imported industries with many ex- pressions of satisfaction, and point to the importation of industries as one of the best effects of the Mckinley tariff law. But they do not reflect that when a mll-owner in Europe goes to tho trouble and expense of shipping his ma chinery to America, building new fac tory and putting it into operation, there must be some spe ial hope of gain held out to him. Protectionists assert that the tariff lowers prices; but clearly the foreign manufacturer does not come here to get lower prices for his goods. He comes for higher prices-for Mckinley tariff prices
 An interesting case, however, is that of German manufacturer of woolen
 
 ground and went home without deciding to build a plant in America. His req sons for not building here are highly in- teresting from a tariff standpoint The manufacturer gives the reasons why, after careful observation in his travels and upon ripe reflection. he concluded not to transfer his industry to this coun- try. The first of these he declares to be the high duties on raw wool, yarn and dye stufrs, which make it hard for American manufacturers to compete in the home markets with their European rivals, notwithstanding the heavy duties on woolens, and impossible 10 secure an outlet for their surplus products in neutral markets While the American manufacturers of woolens are absolutely and inexorably confined 10 the home demand, their competitors in England, i Germany and France, with free wool, 1 have the world for their customer While this manufacturer found the i high duties on wool a great hlndranee to cheap wooden manufacture in the United i States, he did not find near so great q difference in wages as the protectionists have often asserted to exist between this country and Germany. He says that, after personal inquiries in the industri al j districts of New York, New Jersey. and i Pennsylvania, he finds that the average ! rate is scarcely g per cent. higher than 1 in Germany. He asks what this amounts to when the wooden products are subject ] to duties ranging from so to 100 per 1 cent Yet the advocates of protective i spoliation necessarily repeat the fiction ! that the Mckinley tariff is so ad usted as only to compensate American manu- 1 lecturers for the difference in wages in 1 this country and in Europe,
 The fact is that when the actual pro- duction of days labor is taken i to consideration the wages in the woolen 1 factories of Pennsylvania and Massa- chusetts are lower than in France and ! Germany. This has been conclusively shown by experts who have examined i the processes of manufacture in this i country and in Europe, and have mado | comparisons as to the actual labor cost in a yard of goods
 1 Such a comparison the protectionists 1 will never make. They always take the wages paid in Europe by the day or by | the week, and compare them with the 1 daily or weekly wages in the United i States Yet it must ho clear to even a half-intelligent mind that the only valid i comparison is that of the labor cost in
 the yard, the pound, etc. On this point i the great contention Of tho protec- 1 tionists as to the "pauper labors of Eu- i rope breaks down completely; for if VIC 1 can make yard of cloth with less labor
 than they can in Europe, it is folly to | talk longer about the "pauper- made | goods" of Europe.