The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1892-01-08
Under Revenue A TarifF....What
American Economist.

Under Revenue A Tariff.--.What?
| American Economist.
Free-Trade papers generally deny
that the adoption of their policy would
lover American wages. A working
man would be very simple to take their
word for 1T. They are working for
Iabor's vote and know that success for
thom is impossible without it. To
conccde that unrestricted competition
of Foreign products would lower wages
would ALLEVIATE the support of every
wage Garner. So the workingman can
depend upon it that, even if they
believed reduction of wages would
follow the adoption of revenue tariff
they would not say so. In other words,
thev are interested vitality interested
witnesses.
There is a Frcc-Trade paper called
the .Nem Yorl; Daily Coms,ercial Bill
letin which tells The truth On this roint.
1t is gotten up especially for stock
brokers, money lenders, spectators and
capitalists generally. Seldom or never
does its editorial page fal! under the
eye of workinginan. it has no
motive, therefore, for concealment,
since prospects of cheapness, lower
wages and increased purchasing power
of money, all of which It believes will
follow in the vale of a revenue tariff,
appeal to the seliishness of its class Of
readers and make rather Than unmakc
votes for its policy. 1t can afford to be
frank on this wages question and It is
frank
Some one wrote to the Bulletin TO
inquire "what would te the effects of
substituting revenue tariff for our
present Protective Tariff We
earnestly ask the attention Of working.
men to its answer, 1t SAYS:
Upon the Introduction of the con-
ditions supposed i. e., revenue Tariff
conditionsL the manufacturer would
be required to produce at prices as low
as any at which foreign manufacturers
could sell their products in our markets.
Any honest man of sound mind can
not help asserting to this simple
proposition. Cloth made IN Bradford
at, say, dollar a yard would be sent
out here and sold under the noses Of
our own manufacturers unless they
made similar cloth as chsaply. 1t is
we'll known that as to the most OF
products American manufacturers can.
not produce so cheaply as foreigners
So that after it is agreed tLqt y;c.1nust
under revenue Tariff produce as cheaply
as any foreign manufacturers any
where in the world, the next question
is, What items in cost of production
must TIE American manufacturer cut
down in order to keep his mills run
ming? Our Free-Trads contenporar,
makes answer:
In case of his using raw material.
which had paid duty, the repeal of sucl
duties would correspondingly reduc.
his products. and in many branches of
industry that saving alone would gt
% far toward qualifying US to compel,
with foreign productions.
For the sake of argument we an,
willing to grant all this although W,
believe that the writer cyeyestimate
the reductions that would come will
free raw materials. He does not TAX,
into account the rise IN price of foreig,
materials that would ensue so soon
American factories began using them
He forgets that the law Of supply an,
. demand would still govern, and tha
an extensive demand from us, whicl
did not before exist, would to som
degree send up the price of Australian
- wool. He also loses sight of the inter
ests of the hundreds of thousands o
|, workingmcn and farmers engaged i,
producing domestic raw materials VIII
would be sacrificed on tho altar O
, cheapness. But this is immaterial t
our present purpose. He does no
} pretend that free materials woul
compass the required degree o
cheapness in production. Somethin
else is necessary, and the Commercial
Bulletin has the honesty to point it out
For the remaining necessary redue
tion in the costs Of production, not onl
in this class of cases but also in th
cases where domestic raw material
. alone were used, recourse must be ha
to such reductions Of wages as eac
particular branch Of produetion misl
need to bring its COSTS OF psoducin
N down to the lowest foreign standard
No one ought TO. experience an
-. e s.s