Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-10-27

FoiCne IS a very important item in
the cost Of manufactured wares. Amer
lea, both on account of ability to buy
and on account of the large population.
is by far the best market in the world.
Give the American manufacturers the
exclusive right to the American market,
and give them as cheap labor as the
Europeans get. and the products would
be cheaper here than in any other place
in the world, as they could be afforded
cheaper on account of the quantity pro-
duced.
A protective tariffpresupposes large
home market. Protection would have
very little if any beneficial effect in such
countries as Norway and Denmark.
where the home demand is very small.
and it would be impossible for manufac-
turers 10 get any large trade in those
countries. Hense wares cannot be pro.
duced cheaply there unless they find a
market aside from their own.
Very few people who are not in the
manufacturing business have any con
ception of the difference in the cost OF
production quantity makes. 1t does not
pay to rig up the best of tools and APP
planes for small quantities. Ten ton
of railroad rails per day would not, to
the uninitiated, seem like so very small
amount. yet it is certain that mill of
only ten tons daily capacity would have
to charge more than double the present
price of rails to come out whole. Sewing
machines can be sold at present price
only because they are made in so large
quantities. But it costs very large
sum of money to build and equip fac
tory to make sewing machines in such
numbers that the business will pay.
1t not only costs much more to manu-
facture goods in small quantities, but it
also costs much more to market them.
A man who sells iron will sell Ten tons
as quickly as he sells one, and it takes
no more office work for the ten than for
the one. Carnegie had the foresight
and pluck to go into the iron business
on large scale and he made money.
When his slower competitors at last
overlook him he had the means to build
new mills that were still larger and still
better equipped and was still ahead.
The Homestead mill is doubtless the
best of its kind in the world. Iron is
now very neary as cheap in this coun-
try as it is in Europe, though wages are
about double. This cheap iron is caused
by the large American market which
makes it possible to produce il on so
large scale. With suitable protection
it is more than probable that maniac
tured wares will average cheaper here
than anywhere else in the world within
ten to fifteen years, and that too with
out reducing wages. Not a few articles
are cheaper already. In former com.
munication | mentioned reapers and
mowers as an example. The same hold
true as to most agricultural implements.
On the steamer ON which ! came home
from England the question of prices
was discussed between a New Yorker
and an Eoglishmen. The Engisman
CHANGED TO remark that while wages
were higher in this country prices of
products were also higher, so that prob
ably the wages would go as far in Eng
| land as in America. This woke the New
Yorker up. He said he had heard a
good deal about lower prices in Europe.
He had now investigated for himself,
and declared that we would never think
of buying his goods in Europe; that
this talk of lower prices over there was
all moonshine. And the New Yorker
was democrat and free trader. But
he was also an American.
As our industries develop and prices
decline this talk about lower prices in
Europe will die out, for the reason that
there will be nothing in it.
Because of this cheap production, the
next step will be to go into foreign mar
kets as competitors of European manu-
facturers. When goods are produced
here as cheaply as elsewhere, some OF
them will find their way to foreign mar
bets. even when not favored by reci-
procity treaties. This increased eign
trade viii be the result of our protective
system. About the time of the passage
of the Mckinley law, when it was vocif-
erously asserted that it was a Chinese
wall that would cut off all foreign trade,
l wrote an article maintaining that in
stead of diminishing foreign trade, the
Mckinley bill would increase it. / coz.
fess that did not think that the in
crease would be so pronounced in SO
short a time. Our foreign trade has
! been much larger since the passage OF