The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-07-15
SOlTE INSIDE FACTS.
TARIFF ROBBERS WANTED TO WRECK
THE WORLDS FAIR.

n Body-A Complete Exposure.
| The country has little knowledge of
| the extremity to which tariff robbers
will go to prevent intelligent people
from discovering the robbery practiced
on them in the name tf protection.
| Little information has been permitted
to escape from committee Sboms and
confidential conferences about pro-
| pOsal which. if adhered to, would have
! totally wrecked the foreign exhibits at
| the Worlds Columbian exposition ami
| left that colossal undertaking withou
representation by any producers exceT
| those of the United States. The stor
is one of the most striking illustration
| that could be added to those of tariff
| history.
1t has always been the privilege Of
| foreign exhibitors at international ex-
| hibitions TO make their own description
of their own exhibits. Any other prin
ciple would be necessarily absurd and
| intolerable. If foreign exhibitors may
not state in catalogue, on cases con-
tanning goods, i'll price lists and in ad
vertisements what they please about
their own exhibits, they will simply re-
fuse to exhibit, and there - matter
would end. One great object in hold
| ing international expositions is the com
parison of cost Of production as well az
of processes and materials. 1t is these
comparisons that make international ex-
hibitions great schools of progress. In
innumerable lines Of industrial activity
Ia Oh l,.
the study of experts among exhibits of
rivals. One reason why number of
British manufacturer refused to par
ticipate IN our fair was frankly stated
that our skilled worimen would dis
cover the secrets of their workshops and
avail of the cheaper methods by which,
being older practitioners than we, they
are able vt lower rates 10 put many
grades Of popular goods on the market.
1t has also been an inv2riable rule of
foreign exhibitions to admit duty free
all foreign exhibits, subject to the do
mestic tariff only if offered for sale after
the conclusion of an exhibition. This
rule has been observed in all British.
continental and colonial cypositions. It
has also been recognized Ill the interna-
tional exhibitions previously held in the
United States-that at New York, q
failure, in 1853; that at Philadelphia, d
success, in 1876. 1t was covered among
the rules officially promulgated for
foreign exhibitors by the director gen.
eral of the Worlds Columbian exposition
at Chicago, 1893 Notwithstanding all
but universal grumbling among foreign
producers when requested to participate
in our fair, they have gradually ac-
quiesced to considerable degree. They
accepted our invitation on the terms in
which it was conveyed. These terms
implied that the same rules would op-
crate that We're recognized by previous
international exhibitions.
Meanwhile the American tariff robber
was slyly at work. He became alive to
the fact that if foreign goods were
marked in the Worlds fair at the figures
for which they can be produced and pay
a profit to the manufacturer in addition
to the cost of production he would be in
danger Of undoing. Many of the coun-
tries from which foreign exhibits are
coming are themselves protection coun-
tries. Yet they can place on the market
goods in many respects superior to ours
at prices running from one-third to one
half. While the cry of starved British
labor is rung by Republican demagogues
the cry of starved French labor will not
serve. Causes that starve labor in Eng
land-causes not at all related to tariffs
do not exist in France. There land is
free and the people are able to feed as
lOth t1,a, Il
the American tariff robber keep from
the knowledge of Americans visiting
the Worlds fair the fact that in France,
highly prosperous country, its labor
the happiest and gayest in the world
and protective country, goods can be
put on the market at one-third to one
half their cost in our market, controlled
exclusively by the American tariff rob
Der?
An expedient was adopted which came
near wrecking the Worlds fair. Pres
sure was brought TO bear on the director
general to prohibit foreign exhibitors
from placing any prices on their goods
except with the addition of the Ameri-
can Mckinley robber tariff.
Two objects We're to be accomplished
by this. The first was TO sustain the
grotesque untruth of Mckinley and his
followers that 1.-THE foreigner pays the
tax secondly, to deceive the great mass
of unrefiecting Americans about the real
cost of production minus the tariff tax.
British, French, Italian, South Ameri-
can and Canadian exhibitors raised so
furious a protest that theSirector general
was compelled to annul the outrageous
order, which would have made every
foreign exhibitor commit willful false
hood in representing as the price of his
goods what in fact was not their price,
but the price with the tribute added
which the American buyer pays to the
American tariff robher, Had the pre-
scIiption for falsehood not been recalled
the foreign exhibitors would have with
drawn in body. The benefits of the
international exposition TO the people of
tba ITpita1 Statae thoco -, ,or;pT