Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-04-22
PROTECTION FOE RAslNs.
A Case Showing the Cost of Protectien n.
We Pay Too Much for the Whistle.

A Case Showing the Cost of Protectien.
We Pay Too Much for the Whistle.
Producing things at home is such a
dear thought to the protectionist mind
that the McKinleyites never stop to ask
what it costs the country to produ ce
things here which could be had much
cheaper abroad. Fortunately there are
some cases when we can estimate pretty
closely what the cost of protection IS.
The New York Merchants Review has
been figuring upon the cost of protect
ing our raisin and prune industries.
The Review says:
There were produced in California
in 1890 q, 300, 900 pounds of box raisiI S
and 100000 pounds of bag raisins
Calculating these to be worth ten cents
per pound for the former and seven cents
per pound for the latter, we have total
value of g 800, 900. At the present duty
the imports of foreign raisins in 1890
would have cost consumers S1,l19, 1863
for duty alone. The prunes produced
In California in 1890 amounted to A.
10000 pounds, which at eleven cents
per pound would yield 81 500, 200. The
period at the present duty would have
cost consumers $1,23S, us for duty
Therefore during the present year the
public may calculate upon paying in
taxes fully S2,35s,0OO to support two
industries which together annually Weld
only 1855, 900 at wholesale prices in
New York. AT place of production the
total value would be much lower. This
is expensive protection.
Let US see how expensive. Last year
we imported "A, 700, coo pounds of raisins,
valued at $2,315,OO0, or slightly more
than five cents pound. California sup
plies us with 30, 800, 900 pounds, worth, as
The Review shows, s., 900, 600 At five
cents pound this quantity would have
been worth 81, 900. The higher price
OF California raisins, however, is partly
justified by their superior quality.
Our imports of prunes last year We're
81 100000 pounds, valued at s, $40, 0O0
or little more than four and one-half
cents pound. The California product
OF IA, SOC, 600 pounds at four and one-half
cents would have been worth 1862. 900, in
stead of 81 ,595, 900. Some allowance must
be made again for the fact that Califor-
MIA prunes are superior to most of those
imported. Many of the imported prunes
are of a low grade from Turkey, and are
consumed by our poorer people.
The California raisins and prunes are
abundantly able to hold their own with
out any protection at all, and there was
absolutely no justification for Mckinley
IN increasing the duty on prunes from
one cent to two cents per pound, and on
raisins from two cents to two and one
half cents. There is no justice in taxing
the food of the poorer people TO protect
the food of the rich.
California does not need this duty, if
one may judge from the way in which
people there have been rushing into the
business of growing grapes for raisins.
a California paper announces that, with
the vineyards soon TO come into bearing,
the state will have capacity of $780,
COO boxes of raisins year, equal to 155,-
O00,00 pounds. The Mckinley duty on
an equal quantity imported would then
be $3,S75, 600 year
We may pay too much for chr McKin-
ley whistle.