Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-06-03
THE TARIFF MADE EASY.
PRACTICAL QUESTIONS RscE,v-
INC PRACTICAL ANSWERS.
We Co. Grow Carpet Cleveland
aad Rhode lsland-No Reason for Fear.
Few York Tribune-Areument in f,,c.
aeueea.
Tarin Questions Auswercd.

Every protectionist admits that the
primary effect of a protective duty MAJ
= to increase the price of the article to
the consumer; but he also claims thai
this Increase of price, it it does occur,
rs only temporary, and that very soou
prices will fall. And why? Because Of
home competition, which begets
skill, leads to the introduction 81
better methods, and often to the
invention of improved machinery.
In q state of active Compel.
ton, with each manufacturer strain
Ing every nerve to get his products on
II market before his brother manufact-
urers, these results cannot but follow.
American labor ice given a chance to
exert itself, soon becomes more skill
full, American ingenuity devises new
processes and better methods, and
American inventive genius having a
field for application mas ever given us
improved machines and l~abor-saving
devices. In this way protection tends
= lower cost of production, and thus
that same competition, which of itself
leads TO higher wages because of i'm
creased demand for labor, also leads
to lower prices because of better meth
d n greater skill.
The second reason why manufacturers
can exist in the face of rising and
falling prices is because protection. by
h safeguard it places around the
American market, insures continuous
production although on IL lower scale of
profits. Ii, under free'trade, Ameri-
can manufacturers could live ut all,
Lheir existence would be at best but a
htful one. Exposed at all times to tho
danger OF being swamped by the SUI.
plus production of other countries,
their own production would be tluctuat.
ing nj unsteady: and, as II result, they
could only resort to one expedient-to
charge higher profits in times of COM
vecoup Themselves for the loss
'Ehich might occur at any time,
and which they cannot %foresee.
Under protection, on the other
hand, our market is safe. The manu-
%tacturer does not need to charge higher
pronts ut II time to make up for loss
Ct another, end he can well afford.
therefore, to reduce the rate or scale of
his profits, because his total earnings
are greater on account of the steady
production, which is the result of pro-
lection. So we see that the condition
which exists all around us-that of ris-
ing wages and falling priests not an
anomalous one, but is the natural and
logical result Of the home competition
started into being by the protective
tariff. which guards alike the interests
OF manufacturer, laborer and consumer
of the first, by increasing his total
earnings; of the second, bv arising the
wages received for his work, and Of the
iast, by reducing the prices of the arti-
cles he buvs.
Question No. 81. How are American goods TO
nnd any market abrond rom their chcupncss
Wnlch they are made.
If by tax" turiif is meant, we reply
that any manufacturer who is ambitions
TO try his hand at capturing the worlds
markets can get free raw material for
That purpose now under the drawback
provision of the Mckinley tariff. 1t is
no the duties OIL raw materials that
Keep him out OF those markets. 1t is
the high price paid for American labor
which is entirely responsible for what
price of foreign goods. That free raw
materials would do no good is strikingly
proved i'll the case of cottons. The raw
material is free, vet we export less
manufactured cotton han we import. |
The same is true of manufactures OF
silk, paper stock and hides, although
the ray material in each case is abso-
!utely free. We mus reduce wages
before making any very extensive cap
lures OF foreign markets ut present.
Question No 81. Why, tnkc the duty OF sugar
TO make II cheap and place it on tin plate 10
make it cheap?
10 remove a duty like that on sugar
always lowers he price, because we
could not supply more than one-tenth
of the quantity needed. The duty was
put on tin, because we have the re-
sources for producing all the tin plate
this country n consume. The princi-
pie is this-to admit free what we can't
produce; and to protect what we can
produce in abundance.
Question No. 10. woald free trade be more
advantageous TO the ca pitalist than IL protective
tariff III The sense of making the poor poorer
and the rich richer?
Capital, which is rich, buys labor,
which is poor. Free trade reduces the
price of labor, about the only thing
the Door have TO sell, and ln-
creases the purchasing power of capital,
thus giving it more control over labor.
Free trade makes the rich richer and
the poor poorer. The monstrous i'll
equality o. wealth in the United King
dom, where under free trade thousands
starve IN the Very shadow of the gor-
geous palaces of The wealthy, is stand
ing proof of our statement. Ninety
nine per cent. Of the great fortunes that
do exist here have been amassed in
pursuits that are lot touched by the
tariff.
Question No. Al. in what way does tho tariff
benefit the farm laborcis tina. work by the
month.
1t keeps the swarms of laborcrs in the
cities employed III factories and else
where who otherwise would descend on
the country districts in countless num-
.bers, each i'll search of IL Job. Cultivate
ing the land is the ultimate refuge of
men when they are driven from other
employments. With three men look
ing for one job on every farm in the
country, how would the farm laborer
fare?
Question No. 10. Why does my tailor charge
more for my suit now, made OF English goods,
and insist that American goods OF as fine quail.
tty cannot be hnd:
1t is a notorious fact that even the
foreign goods are imported just about
rs cheaply into this country under the
new tariff as they were before. And
most of the clothing goods sold as inn
ported are made here. There is a fasci-
nation about the word imported"
which, as a rule. will begui'e the pur-
chaser into paying more literally for an
inferior article than he would be- willing
to pay for q better domestic fabric