Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-09-29

as the importer paid tarfn and SOLO mis-
blanket for 81 the American manufacturer was
obliged to do the same When the government
stepped in and said to the manufacturer that ne
must pay 80 cents apiece on his blankets before
he could land them the importer was compelled
to mark the price of his blankets up to a little
over 81 so. Then the American manufacturer
marked his blankets up to, we will say, S1.7O, so
as to just undersen the importer In this way
he drives the importer out OF the market.
The importer cannot AFFORD TO sell blankets at
Ito which cost him 81 go. The result is that
the American manufacturer soon has entire con-
troll Of the market.
1.-The importer stops bringing blankets and IL
will be observed that not a penny OF the seventy
cents each blanket which the American
manufac turer sells goes into the public treas
ury. 1t simply goes into his pocket, because he
has no duty to pay. He does not have to go
through the custom house. The American peo-
pie in this way pay millions of dollars annually
which they would not need to pay if there were
free competition, yet very little of this goes
into the public treasury: it simply goes into the
pockets of manufc cturers, OF trusts and Of
combinations. For when the manufacturer
finds that he has driven the importer entirely
out of the market ne manages to combine with
the other American manufacturers and forms
trust combination, not only for the purpose
of keeping up prices, but of fixing wages. 1t is
in this way that the tariff is the mother Of
trusts. It makes it possible for men to COM
bine and to prevent competition where it would
not be possible if there were prohibitory
tariff.
sit was one of the theories advanced years
ago and recently reiterated by President Harri-
son that protectio in the end cheapens produc-
ton That is, that by governments encourag-
Ing certain industries many people would en-
bark in those Industries, and very soon there
would be created such competition or rivalry
that the price would be reduced below what it
would be if there were tariff and free compe-
utiOn. Now, 1T is to be observed in regard to
this, first, that if it were true, then the moment
that point had been reached, why the tariff
might well be abolished because it would be
no longer needed. If our manufacturers, who
have been coddled, and fed, and petted by the
government got to a point where they can make
goods cheaper than they would otherwise b
made instead of from time to time increasing
the duties on those goods, the tariff ought to be
entirely abolished as to them. But the expert
ence of the last ten years has demonstrated to
the American people that this theory is a false
one, for instead of this competition we simply
have trusts and combinations, by OF
which prices are kept up. Even if the theory
were u correct one it shows the tariff to be
monstrouS injustice to the consumers in the
country, for until the different industrial es-
adjustments have been SO far developed TO
bring about this theoretical competition the
American people are compelled to pay
on an average of nearly sixty per cent.
more for the manufactured articles they
buy than they would otherwise have to
pay. And, as already shown, this sixty per
cent. does not go into the treasury but goes
simply into the pockets of the proprietors of
these industrial est Establishments, and as we have
now had an applica ton of the protective prin-
ciple with comparatively little interruption for
an entire century will ask: How long will it
be until this home competition President Har-
riSOn speaks of shall bring about this reduction
in price? II is apparent that the laborer has
had to pay more for his tools, more for his
clothes. more for his household effects, and that
the farmer has had to pay more tor every man.
ufactured article that he buys by reason of this
tariff, and thus far the promised local coInpeti-
ard ion in flriPn hoe rnf
Instead OF that the tariff has given million
aires by the thousand and has given US local COM
binatiOnS and truS is, while it has destroyed our
foreign commerce. When the importer found
that he could not sell goods in our market be-
cause Of the tariff he naturally quit coming
here. And when he ceased to bring goods here
he also ceased to buy goods here, but would buy
the products he wanted to buy in those markets
where he could also sell the goods he had to
sell. AS result the splendid commerce we
had prior to the war, which, according to Mr..
Blaine, was the grandest upon earth has
been destroyed. Then the farmer nc
confined to home market, but he had a
the markets OF the earth 10 sell his prod
ucts in.
1T was also theory which was much talked
of years ago that the tariff would diversity
home industry and would create q home mar
ket for the farmer to sell his products at. 1t
was admitted that the tariff tended 10 destroy
the foreign market But he was assured that
the home market would be very much better
anyhow, anu nOtlCS InaG senator CullOm re-
Gently at Joliet estimated the intelligence of his
audience sufficiently low to again repeat this
old theory Now. twenty-five years ago, whe
we heard most OF this theory, the farmer was
selling bushel of wheat for from 81 to 81. %
and he was selling other farm products in pro-
portion. To-day he is selling his wheat at sixty
cents a bushel and other farm products in pro-
portion. 1 would like to ask the senator if the
home-market theory has produced this reduc-
ton in price in twenty-f five years how long it
will take 1t to further reduce the price of farm
products SO that a bushel Of wheat will sell for
; quarter and other farm products in proper
ton? But today the whole fabric of produc-
ton rests on the foundation of protecting Amer
lean wOrkingmen. This is the substance of all
the arg ments to-day, and if it does not do this
then the entire reason for it's existence offered
by its strongest advocates is at end. For
the last twenty years the great steamship CON-
panies have found it profitable to bring immi-
grants from Europe to this country, and
through their agents they have induced hun
dredS and thousands of people in the pauper
labor countries to come to America.
ITO successfully do this they generally mr.
range with American employers, mine owners,
proprietors and manufacturers, and other en-
ployers OF labor 70 give these people employ
ment at wages upon which the American labor
err could not live. Thus the steamship compa-
MES have brought them over generally under
contract. And the means of transportation
were constantly improved they were enabled ia
at almost moments notice bring hundreds of
thousands of people here in two weeks time.
The result was that our country was flooded
with the cheapest kind of laborers to be found
in the world; all poor and willing to work for
one-haif of what other laborera were being paid.
So that wages have from time to time been
forced down, except i'll those few instances
where the labor organizations were enabled to
compel the payment of living wages.
THE largo mine owners and the manufactur.
ers In eastern cities discharged their regular
American laborers, both native born and nat
ural1zed, and filled their places with laborer
imported from the cheapest European fields s,
that Mr. Powderly, who is high authority on
ths subject, tells us that almost every Amer.
lean laborer whether native born or natural
lied, was driven out of the great state OF Penn
sylvan,a and his place filed by the imported
laborer- while at the same time the great cities
We're being literally crowded with this imported
tr1cts, in the manufacturing centers and in the
great cities the American laborer male and
female, had to compete with the cheapest labor
TO be found on the earta- 1t expecting too
!nuch or employers to pay the highest wages
when there were throngs at their door ready to
work at starvation wages: So while the tariff
was constantly being inc-sa5ed and the cost of
every thing the lacorer had to buy was kept up,
MS wages were everywhere declining and there
Is not n case on record where any manufacturer
after an increase in the tariff went into his shou
and said to his men: Now the government has
levied tariff: it has relieved me of foreign
competition; 1t has enabled me to make combi-
nations with other manufacturers, and to keen
uD the price of goods oil