The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1892-04-09

'S 'hfPi"Fd-'Eerryn niiiEGeriHs Does
Not fay-Home Markets. British
View of Tin Plates.
One Hundred Questions and Answers
Question No H. The free traders sav that
When We bay an article on which there is a
duty we pay that duty, and when this argu-
melit Is met by showing the cheupncss OF the
article now compared TO its Prics several
years ago. tneE say: Improvement III ma
ch!nery Is the cause i this fact?
lhls question furnishes about as goo d
an instance of the inconsistency of the
free trader as could Lave been given.
The 'retormer' says that the consumer
pays the duty; III other words that the
tariff Is tax, and then when we show
hiin that articles are cheaper, he drops
the "tarIh IS tax question altogether
and answers: Wen, machinery cheap
ened those articles. = The Cobdenite does
not see that he contradict5 himself by
this answer, for if goods are cheaper on
account ofluventions IN machinery, how
can they also be dearer on account Of
the tariff ? Inventions in machinery
are the result Of mechanical skill, the
product of the genius of mechanics
and how could we ever have had me-
chanics had it not been for the tariff?
For free trade would have kept us a
1860, under Il revenue tariff, there We're
issued II, ,23i patents; while under a
protective tariff from 1861 to 1859,
there were issued @65, 800 patents.
If any other proof OF the fact that
protection has stimulated invention is
wanted, we need only quote the words
OF George Carlyle, the inventor Of the
improved machinery in use at the new
pearl-button works at Detroit estab-
lished by the Mckinley tariff:
But for the passage OF the Mckinley bill
my invention would be OF no value, and
there would have been no incentive for
me or anyone else in this country to make
further Inventions in this line
question NJ. Is. A Farmers Alliance paper in
Nebraska is responsible for this: our kepub-
tican friends claim that a protective tarltl en-
aolts manuiaeturers 10 sell goods cheaper.
BEt iet the tarili he taken of and see how quick
prices 20 down, Just as they did when coffee,
sugar, twine, quiuine, c,c., did when the tariff
was taken of or reduced. Is ii so?
TO take the duty off things to whose
production our country Is not adapted
is principle of protection. Duties on
such things are added 10 the price, be-
cause they are revenue or Iree-trade
duties.
Duties on things we can ourselves
produce are entirely different. To
abolish them would be to create an
enormously increased demand on for
eIgn markets, which ALWAYS results in Il
rise IN prices.
To make free thing not produced in
this country merely reduces its price
without intiicting injury on any Ameri-
can interest The removal oi a protect
i've duty on thing we do produce
would involve the destruction of the
domestic industry, render useless per
haps millions OF capital invested III 1T,
throw the labor employed into idleness,
and narrow the farmers market for hls
produce.
Question No. L. Why are the iron miners Of
| America better oil under protection than
| they would be under free trade:
nder free trade, or the walker
Tariff approximation to it. pourig iron
production fell from 100000 tons in
1916 to as low as 500, ,O19. ami in lSti0 il
| reached S21 BOB tons For all that time
our pig iron production did not average
over 100000 tons per annum. | ndel
protection it reached . ,2O2, ,703 tons in
1890. As ii takes about two tons of ore
| to make ton of pig iron anyone can
see where our iron inil-ers come in.
Question No Is. II we can ot ind suitable
material IN the [ nitCd states to make good
dishes rs they make in England. why impose q
duty Of &c per cent. on dishes?
We can make better dishes here than
in England, we have the material here.
The men who dig the clay. spar and
flint get more wages, as well as those
who make the dishes. The duty il i'm
posed To protect both classes of labor.
Question No. H. Does Liverpool fix the price
ofwheate Ifnot, what does:
The worlds price of wheat, which is
the Liverpool price, is determined
first Of all. by the amount of wheat pro
duced III the world. The amount ot
wheat left over after the home demands
of all wheat-growIng countries have
been supplied, determines the amount
that can be sent To Liverpool. If this
amount Is large the price will be low; il
small, the price will be high. Thus il
the Liverpool price really fixed by the
wheat growers themselves, instead oi
that markets fixing the price for them
This Is not 10 say that American farm
ers Of themselves fix the Liverpool
price. They 10 not, because II il a for
eign market. They must meet there
the Russian, the Hindoo. the Argen-
tine, the British American, and the
price is adjusted by the competition oi
all bidding against one another. Ac.
cording TO figures from the Depart
mcnt Of Agriculture the production and
prices of wheat for eleven years were as
| follows:
PRODUCTION Am rEICE or AMERICAN WHEAT
FOR ELEEEN YEARS.