The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1892-05-18
SOME TARIFF QUESTIONS
TO WHICH SOME PRACTICAL
ANSWERS ARE GIVEN.
Three Free Traders Talk About the Tar
IN aud Prices-"rhs Piundersd Home
stsad"-A Report on tho Tin plate Indus
try-Aftsr Forty Years.
Light Thrown Upon Tariff Questions.

Light Thrown Upon Tariff Questions.
Does not Great Great Britain forbid, under
penalty. the production of certain articles on
which she leyies u revenue duty?
Yes; the cultivation OF tobacco i'm En-
gland and Scotland is criminal offense
This Is the logical outcome of the policy
OF free trade or revenue tariff, the theo-
ny OF which is 10 place duties on nom
competing articles. When, therefore,
the number of such articles is not great
enough TO yield the needed revenue,
the next step. under the Cobdenite
regime, is 10 absolutely prohibit the es-
adjustment OF certain industries. How
ever attractive this policy Nv appear
to the enlightened eyes of BUR Mug
wump "reiormers," to call it Tree trade
Is surely anomalous With American
ideas of freedom it certainly does not
harmonic.
shat imports the more wealth OF the one that
exports the more wealth?
The foreign trade of any country is
very poor index of its wealth. III our
ports were completely biockaded to-
morrow, 80 that we could neither i'm
port nor export cents worth ever
after, we would still remain the wealth
lest uation In the world. When the
Irish people were starving by the hun
dred thousand ireland was exporting
immeaae quantities of beef. pork, NUT
ton, butter and grain. 1t is the wealth
produced and kept at home that makes
US the richest nation In the world.
Judging by foreign trade returns alone
we would be put down az having less
than half the wealth of the United
Kingdom, two-thirds that of Germany,
and about the same as that OF France.
AS matter of fact, none of these coun-
tries even approaches us in the point of
wealth. Our internal commerce is
many times more important than our
foreign trade.
Why is 1t that since the Mckinley tariff has
been In operation. the wages of the workmen in
the protected industries have been reduced
from time 10 time?
Wages will be reduced and advanced
from time to time in obedience to laws
beyond the power of man to control,
no matter what kind of tariff we may
have, just as the price of wheat or beef
will be high one year and low the next.
But 1t is a mistake to suppose that
wages have tended downward under
the new tariff. There have been few
reductions here and there, notably in
iron mills, because of the low price o
iron. and the free traders have made
great hurrah about it and tried to create
the impression that wages generally are
falling. They never mention the thou
sands of cases of increased wages that
have been mentioned in these columns
from time to time. Wages, as q rnle.
have been advancing under the McKin-
ley tariff.
Why is the cost of living cheaper In England
than In the United States?
Food, the principal item of expense
in workingman's FAMILY, is cheaper in
this country than in England. In gen
eral, rents and manufactured articles
are cheaper in England because of low
wages there. Carroll ID. Wright, who,
as an authority, is unapproached by any
other living American. demonstrated
in 1882 that while wages were II per
cent. higher in Massachusetts, than in
England, ''the prices of articles entering
into the cost of living are on the average
17.29 per cent. higher in Massachusetts
than In Great Britain; that of this fig
ure ll.4O per cent. was due to higher
rents in Massachusetts,, leaving $50 per
cent. as indicative of the higher cost of
livingin Massachusetts, as compared with
Great Britain, as regards the remaining
element of cost. "-Americdn Economist.