Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-09-22

/ is IN the nelghDorh0O0 OF 30 per cent so long
| as the importer paid no tariff and sold his
blanket for 81 the American manufacturer was
obliged to do the same When the government
| stepped in and said to the manufacturer that he
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 little
| over 81 So Then the American manufacturer
marked his blankets up 10. Will say, s17o, so
as to Just undersel the importer. In this way
he soon drives the importer out of the market
| Tae importer cannot afford 10 sell blankets at
S110 which cost him 81 80. The result is that
| the American manufacturer soo1 has entire con-
! troll Of the market
The importer stops bringing blankets and it
will be observed that not penny of the seventy
cents each blanket which the American
manufacturer sells goes into the public treas
ury. 1t simply gees into his pocket. because he
has no duty 10 pay. He does have TO go
through the custom house. TIE American peo-
pie in this way pay millions OF dollars annually
which they would not need to pay il there were
free competition. yet very little of this goes
into the public treasury: i: simply goes into the
pockets of manufacturers, of trusts and Of
combinations. For when the manufacturer
finds that he has driven the importer entirely
out OF the market he manages to combine with
the other American manufacturers and forms
trust or combination. not only for the purpose
OF keeping up prices, but of fixing wages. II IS
in this way that the tariff is the mother of
trusts. 1t makes it possible for men to COM
Dluc anu 10 prevent "lcEc IL WOulu
not be possible if there were no prohibitory
tariff.
1T vas OF the theories advanced years
ago and recently reitera led by President Harri
son that protection 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 i competition or rivalry
that the price would be reduced below what it
would be il there were no tariff and free compe
tition. Now. it is to be observed in regard to
this, first, that if il were true, then the moment
that point had been reached, why. the tariff
might well be abolished because il would be
no longer needed. If our manufacturers, who
have been coddlcd, and fed, and petted by the
government got to q point where they can make
goods cheaper than they would otherwise be
made instead OF from time to time inCrea sing
the duties Oh those goods, the tariff ought to be
entirely abolished as to them But the expert
ence CT tie last ten years has demonstrated to
the American people that this theory is false
one, for instead of this competition simply
have trusts and combinations by means of
which prices are kept up. Even il the theory
were q correct one it shows the tariff to be !
monstrous injustice to the consumers in the
country, for Unfit the different industrial es-
adjustments have been SO far develope as 20
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
pay. And, as already shown, this sixty per
cent does not so into the treasury but goes
simply into the pockets of the proprietors of
these industrial establishments, and we have
now had an application of the protective prin-
ciple with comparatively little interruption for
an entire century will ask How long will 1t
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, for MS
clothes N 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 competi-
ton and reduction in price has not come about.
Instead Of that the tariff has given million
aires by the thousand. and has given US local COM
binations and trusts, while it has destroyed our
foreign commerce. When the importer found
that he could not sell goods in our market be-
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 chose markets
where he could also sell the goods ne had to
sell. AS result the splendid commerce we
had prior TO the war, which, according to Mr..
Blaine. was the grandest upcn earth, has
been destroyed. Then the farmer was not
confined to home market, Bat he had all
the markets of the eorth TO se!l his pod
ucts ia.
1T was also theory which IVES much talked
of years ago that the tariff would diversity
home industry and would create home mar
ket for the farmer to sell his products at. 1t
was admitted that the tariff tended 10 destroy
the foreign narset But he was assured that
the home market would be very much better
anyhow and notice that Sena.o Cullom
Gently At Joliet eStna ted the Intelligence of his
audience sufficiently low to again repeat this
old theory. Now. twenty-five years ago, when
heard most OF this theory, the farmer
selling bushel of wheat for from 81 to 81 .
ard he was selling other farm products in pro-
portion To-day he IS selling his wheat al sixty
cents bIshel and other farm products in pro-
portion l would like to ask the senator if the
home market theory has produced this reduc-
ton n price in twenty-five years now long it
will take it to further reduce the price Of farm
products so that bushel of wheat will sell for
. quarter and other farm products in proper
ton? But today the whole fabric OF produc-
tion rests on the foundation of protecting Amer
lean worJingmsn. This is the substance of all
the arg uments to-day, and if il does not do this
then the entire reason for its existence offered
by lis strongest advocates is at an end For
the last twenty years the grea: steamship COM
pales have found il profitable to bring lmn:-
Grants from Europe TO this country, and
through their agents they have induced hun
dreds and thousands of people IL the pauper
labor countries to come to America
To successfully do this they generally ar
range with American employers. mine owners,
proprietors and manufacturers, and other en-
ployerS Of labor 70 give these people employ
nent at wages upon which the American Labor
er could rot live. Thus the steamship CoTpa-
MES have brought them over generally under
contract. And as the means Of transportation
were constantly improved they were enabled TO
at almost a 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 10 be found
in the world: all poor and wiling 70 work for
one-haif of what other laborers were being paid
So that wages have from time to time been
forced down. except in those few instances
where the labor orgaIiZat tons were enabled to
compel the payment of living wages
THE large mine owners and the manufactur-
ers in eastern cities discharged their regular
American laborers, both native born and nat
ur3liZed. and filed their places with laborcrs
imported from the cheapest European fields. SO
this subject, tells US that almost every Amer
lean laborer, whether native born or natural
lied was driven out OF the great state OF Penn
sylvania and his place filled by the imported
while at the same time the great cities
were being literally crowded with this imported
pauper labor, that both in the mining dis
tricts. in the manufacturing centers and in the
great cities the American Iaborer, male and
female, had to compete with the cheapest labor
to be found on the eartn. 1t was expecting too
much OF employers TO pay the highest wages
when there were throngS at their door ready to
work at starvation wages: 50, while the tariff
was constantly being increased and the cost Of
every thing the lsborer had to buy was kept up,
his wages were everywhere declining, and there
is not case on record where any manufacturer
after an increase in the tariff went into his shop
and said 70 his men: Now the government has
levied a tariff: it has relieved me OF foreign
com petition: it has enabled to make corlbi-
nations with other manufacturers, and TO keep
u