The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-07-30
THE ia RIFF AND pp,,.

S"PeioH The N.
apolis Times has an interesting ,'s
structive article which will be r0,a ID
pleasure and profit by many vbo
clearly understand the relation
tariff to the prices paid for man,
Giles. The belief among many is tb.,
tariff is the principal factor in rod".
the cost of many articles TO ,bs '
chaser. This ls an %erroneouo \.
the decline has taken place n :,
trade" England to a degree more m,.a
than in this country.
AS the Times says free traders
tend that the prices in a country III
a tariff prevails will be higher dn.
the continuance of that tariff Than !,
are abroad during that time. Tbi. !;
matter of fact. If it were not tbo y
would be a complete failure and ~
f~acturers would not be c%ontributiD,,]
dred Of dollars to campaign fura
maintain the tariff.
The pro tectioniss tell us that
rails are a great deal cheaper !
country today than they were
years ago. That is true but they ar,
cheaper there than they are in End,
1u other words the decline in price,
been due to something besides the M
and due also to something besides A
trade. The cause of the decline i, \
manufacture of steel rails has ND
first, the great cheapening of the cs,|
production of iron, and second, the gvI
cheapening in the process of the msI
facture of steel The result of this i
been, of course, a decline in the prie|
steel rails the world over. But as a md
ter of fact steel rails are higher in And
lea than they are abroad, and higher
cause of the tariff.
The same is true of tinplate. rriu|
the passage of the Mckinley BIZ We \
a purely revenue tariff on t%inplate, d
imports were heavy, but the tax paid
the consumer went to the national tsj
urv. amounting to something near n
100000 a year. The price of %tlnplats|
America was the price in England r1
the cost of transportation and the tariatJ
Under this revenue tariff the price
tinplate steadily declined from 1851
1890; declined because it was mad
cheaper, the foreign price in 1850 bed
1928; the home price being much gnsI
reaching 1896 a box. Continuing u
Times says:
"The average price of tinpas :
America for five years prior to July
1880, vas S4.J5; the average price 10
was SJ.GS. Here is an advance, becsu
of the Mckinley tariff bill, of SLSI
box.
But this is not all. The foreign 4
has declined more than 81 d box ID
past year, SO that the increase pd
the American consumer, because d
Mckinley tariff, is not 5123. the pns
1891 againsr 1888, but 51.23 plus The
cline abroad.
The tariff shuts us out from theft
benefits of the inventions Of msldi
and improvements in the method: |
production the world over RepubBa1
insist that any reduction In price ui
be followed by reduction in vg1
Yet the history of prices the vMI
ove shows that there is nothing |
sustain such an assertion. There A
been, for illustration, in strc. ratsI
iron, in tinplate, in cotton produces
steady decline in the cost Of the artN1
for a generation or more. At the s1
time there has been Il steady aivanc
wages, not in America alone, butlnti
gland.
This is one of the most encourage
facts in industrial history. II sho'
that the worth of the man incTeas
while the price of what hc needs
steadily declining. Let this process
on for a century more and many o. U
social difficulties which are 50 @I'
preached about will disappeHr