The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-11-02

1890, and the consequent scarcity of
supply. The investigation proves that
OF articles of clothing were at no time
as high after December I, 1880, as in
June, July, and August of that year;
that drugs and chemicals in like man
ner declined after the new tariff was
passed, the fall amounting in the
average to 2 Il per cent within the
year; that drugs and chemicals in like
manner declined nearly 2 per cent,
and were at no time afterwards as high
as when the act passed, and that
household furnishing, goods, twenty
seven in number, have never been SO
high since August, 1889, as At that
time. In general, all articles, except
food, were lower in every month after
March, 1891, than in 1850, proving
conclusively that manufactured pro-
ducts affected by duties were not on
the whole enhanced in prices by the
new tariff.
(2) That the slight and temporary
advance in retail prices Immediately
after the act went into effect at no
time amounted, for all articles other
than food, to more than a quarter Of
one per cent. or IS cents on $Ioo,
and lasted no longer than March, 1891,
and has been followed by a general
decline. Food products also declined
when the good crops of 1891 began to
come forward, SO that all classes of
articles then became lower than in
1850, these facts, established by the
concurrlng reports OF Senators of both
parties, put an end absolutely to the
pretence that the new tariff caused a
general advance in the cost of living
or in the retail prices of articles to
consumers. But the same committee
went farther, and
81 BY investigation at three points,
in May, 1899, established the fact
that there had been a further decline
from September, 1891, to May, 1892.
At Fall River, Massachusetts, this de-
cline was LIZ per cent. in the aggre-
gate of all retail prices, at Chicago
4. 2 per cent, and at Dubuque, Iowa,
prices were unchanged A still later
investigation at Homestead, Persvlva-
MIA, not by official agents, has exnlbr-
ed continued decline in the same al
tlcles down to August 1892, extending
to every class of articles, and making
the entire decline in retail prices II
three years, from July, 1880, a little
over ten per cent.
1t is, therefore, established beyond
a doubt that the cost of living has not
been increased by the new tariff, but
that every dollar earned by labor will
purchase more of things required Tor
support and comfort OF family than
a dollar would purchase when the new
tariff was enacted or the year before
its enactment. In large measure,
moreover, this decline in prices can
be directly traced to the increased
American production, and more act
i've competition between home pro-
ducers, which the new Tariff has
caused. Thus the imports OF cotton
ties have been completely stopped,
but the home producers have com
peted SO sharpely that steel cotton
ties Of the best quality have been
largely sold at the South for cents
per h., price lower than was ever
quoted before the act was passed.
Many articles of clothing, wooden
goods, and dress goods and cottons
especially. have been lower since the
new Tariff went into effect than ever
before, owing to the enormous PIC
duction that measure has brought
: about. Never in the history Of the
country has the value of protective
measure been so quickly demonstrated
) at any other time, in greatly increased
= production and reduced cost to con
sumers, as within the past two year.
| under the new Tariff.