Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-07-01
SOME TARIFF QUESTIONS
40, WHICH SOME PRACTICAL
ANSWERS ARR GIVEN.
three Free rr.asr. r.lk Abou. tn. r.r-
~ aad Pricss-..Ths Plundersa Home
stssd"-AR Report ON the Tin-plats Indus-
tfy-Aftsr Forty Years.

Light Thrown Upon Tariff Qusasons.
Does not Great Great Britain forbid. under
rens,ty; the production OF certain articles on
which she levies y revenue duty?
Yes; the cultivation of tobacco in En-.
gland and Scotland is criminal ofense.
This is the logical outcome of the policy
of free trade or revenue tariff, the theo-
~ of which 10 to 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 to absolutely prohibit the es-
adjustment of certain industries. How
ever attractive this policy may appear
to the enlightened eyes of our Mug
wump "reformers," to call it free trade
is surely anomalous! With American
ideas of freedom it certainly does not
harmonize.
that imports the more wealth or the one that
exports the more wealth:
The foreign trade of any country is q
very poor index of it's wealth. If our
ports were completely blockaded to-
morrow, 30 that we could neither inn
port nor export q cents worth ever
after, We would still remain the wealth.
lest nation in the world. When the
Irish people were starving by the hum
dred thousand ireland was exporting
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 as having less
than half the wealth of the United
Kingdom, %two-thirds that of Germany,
and about the same as that of France.
AS a matter of fact, none of these coun-
tries ever approaches US in the point of
wealth.. Our Internal commerce is
many times more important than u
foreign trade.
Why IL 1t that since the Mckinley tariff has
been In operation. the wages of the workmen in
the protected industries have been reduced
from time ;Otime?
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 II year and low the next.
But it is a mistake to suppose that
wages have tended downward under
the new tariff. There have been a few
reductions here and there, notably in
iron mills, because of the low price OF
iron. and the free traders have made a
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 a rule,
have been advancing under the Mckin-
ley tariff.
Why is the cost o flivins cheaper IN England
than In the United States?
Food, the principal item of expense
in a workingnan's family, is cheaper in.
this country than in England. In gem
eral, rents and manufactured articles
are cheaper in England eau of low
wages there. Carroll ID. Wright, who,
as an authority, is unapproached by any
other living American. demonstrated
in 1888 that while wages were "a per
cent. higher in Massachusetts than in
England. 'the prices ofarticles entering
into the cost Of living are on the average
1920 per cent. higher in Massachusetts
than in Great Britain; that of this fig
ure 1l.i9 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."-Americuu EcOnomist.