Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-06-24
DISCUSSING THE TARIFF.
AN INTERESTING ARTICLE ON
THE WOOL QUESTION.
Ds.o..elas u.ion Pensions Farmer.
aad the OLD sad the New Tari1 Laws
-Ths Unitsd States Beating Eaglaad
In Canadian Markets.

In Canadian Markets.
rour Important Qssstions Answsrea.
Il the tanff 10 not Q tag paid oy cousu mers
why do our tariff laws allow . rebate Of 90 per
ssedi mi m.n aass pssS Goods Sa s@ s1is sSIo. %cssfi.''
Suppose . manufacturer of plows un.
dertakes to introduce his wares into
. foreign market-say into Australia, for
example. He finds that in order to do
90 successfully against his foreign rivals,
he must place his plows on the Austral.
ian market just . shade lower than he
can possibly afford to and continue in
business. But he notices in the market
reports that pig iron is cheaper in En-
gland than Of home, aud, by figuring it
out carefully and closely. con-
cludes that. il he could get
his iron ut that English price, he
could then make the price of his plows
low enough to compete with the
that the Mckinley law allows him to do
that very thing under it's drawback pro-
vision. Let vi see how il would work
out. We will thus come to good un-
derstanding of the practical workings of
that provision and decide whether It i'm
wolves the admission that 80 per cent.
OF the duty on pig iron is a tax.
Beseemer pig iron now sells in En-
gland at ~ shillings, or $ll. 6S,a ton;with
ocean freightage added, say Sl3 u ton.
The American pillow manufacturer im-
ports it at this price and pays the duty,
$8.72a ton. which brings it's COS. up to
$l9.72. After it has been manufactured
into the plows destined for the Aus.
tralian market and the plows entered.
for export, the government refunds to
him QQ nor Nont nethn date, -nsl ~,,l:~I
would be $B.65a ton, making the net
cost of his pig iron $l3.O7 a ton.
This refund is not an acknowedg-
ment that the duty of S6.72 is paid by
the consumer of domestic pig iron. If
1t were, it would be q very foolish ac-
acknowledgement, because it would be an
acknowledgment of a foolish false
hood.
The only acknowledgment involved
is that it is good thing for the coun-
try If, in addition to orr own market,
the Australian demand for plows can
be supplied from this country. It
would mean an influx of good Austral-
ian money to employ American work.
iingmeen in the flow works, and to circu-
which otherwise would 90 to Germany
or England. But no matter what the
refund of duties implies, the fact is that
the $6.65 a ton is not a tax. Why? Be-
cause. as we have seen, the English pig
iron would have cost sis q ton If admits
ted free of duty. The manufacturer
can buy Bessemer pig to-day in Pitts
burg at $3.50 u ton. The difference,
$l.@a ton, is the utmost limit of the
tariff tax" as figured out even by the
most approved reform" method.
What is the proportion of Our foreign sale Of
ADffnrlf lrnl l 1tROs1yntv 4 n M, AnpnnsN{uS
We export about s per cent. of our
agricultural products. All the rest we
consume ourselves.
Why were the farmers more prosperous from
1850 TO 1850 under a revenue tariff than now.
The time of the farmers prosperity
was from about 1916 to 1886. The causes
that led to this prosperity were: Very
general crop failures throughout Eu-
rope, which brought the price of wheat
from 979a cents in 1874 to Sl.::i6a IN 1871,
and it dropped to Sl.07a in 1851, to
reach $2.43aa in 1866 under the combined
demand from California and that due
to the Crimean war. The discovery of
gold in California, which began to reach
this country in large amounts in 1851 or
1852. added much to prosperity for
went into European pockets to pay for
imported goods.
If our querist will talk with either
farmers or lsborers who remember the
times from 1857 to 1852 they will prob
ably enlighten him as to their prosperi-
ty through those years. The whole
period Was q bonanza for SPECTATORS and
importers, but a dollar was hard to get
and went q very little way.
Why dOss England keep a Gordon of revenue
cutters around her.coast and sustain an army OF
coAst-gusrd service and custom-house officers?
To see that her free trade tariff is
properly collected, just as we keep Gus
toms officers to perform q like duty for
protective tariff. The difference
between the tariffs of England and the
United Statesis not in the height oftheir
respective rates of import duties, but IN
the classes of articles upon which they
are levied.