The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-05-16
AN ANTIDoTE FOR FREE TRADE FITS


Such Protection = that Belle Plain
correspondent has been thrown into
.'fits" by reading my article on The
Growth of the Silk Industry in this
| Country" He intimates that it is not
| the first time he has had attacks of this
kind, but from this enc he ''fails to re-
| cover" and says:
''If the doctor has an antidote, in
mercy he should make il known
We have a never-failing antidote for
| such s'spasus' as he is suffering from.
| The trouble with the gentleman IS that
he has made a mistake in his diagnosis.
Instead OF having fits his head Is
| filed with false theories in regard 10
protection. which the solid facts con-
| tanned in the article on the silk industry
| have exploded, and thrown his theories
| into confusion. The evidence of
the truth of this is furnished IN
his article referred to, as the following
| quotations from it viii show. Referring
to the silk industry article, he says:
| What the object OF the article IS, / am
! unable to decipher. unless it be to show
that protection as applied by the Mchln-
| ley school is good thing. and has built
| up number of prosperous silk manufac-
! tories at the expense of long suffering
! public
Il is evident that if the gentleman had
correct ideas in regard to protection he
| would have known that the prosperous
silk industries that have started have
not been lat the expense of long suif-
ering public on the contrary they have
been a very great benefit to
the public by establishing an IN
valuable industry III this country,
| that otherwise we would not have Sc
cured. 1t has induced capitalists TO put
! so, 9f9, 900 into tories for the manu-
| facture of silk; it has given employ yment
| to 80 913 laborers in these factories, pay
| ing them wages amounting to $19.6So,-
| O00 and using materials that cost over
! 500. coo, 600 annually. Industries OF this
kind are Of vast benefit to all the people.
| Tie persons employed IN the silk indus
| try alone. with their families, would eS-
tablisl! a city OF over 10000 people.
| which makes great demand for farm
produsts, ana other articles that are con-
sumed by these people. At the same
time, it has furnished the people with
| cheaper silks than they would have had,
had there been no protective duties on
the foreign product. Your correspond
| ent says:
Does the good doctor know that silk
! dress which is sold at one dollar yard IN
| New York or Wichita can be purchased ia
Paris. France, for less than fifty cents a
| yard.
No. he does not; neither does your COR
respondent know that to oe a fact. Nor
does he know at what price silks would
| be selling in Paris now, If there were no
protective duties on silks in this country.
While the tariff may have an influence
| on the production of articles, by estab-
fishing factories and thus increasing the
supply and cheapening the price, yet it
! is not the tariff that fixes the price. but
the relative supply and demand. There
is a tariff of 25 cents a bushel on wheat,
but it does not fix the price of wheat IN
this country, as production would
lower the price, tariff or no tarlf.
| Where we have facilities for producing
all the products the people require aud
give a surplus, tariff duties, however
high. do not disturb free traders as they
do W hen most of our goods are made by
foreigners instead of by our own people.
Your correspondent says:
During the ten years mentioned. these
| silk factories have produced about 500, n0,
900 worth of manufactured silks. This has
cost the people who have used the SILK
about $4,000, 600 more than it would have
cost without protection.
The latter part Of this statement is
about as erroneous an assertion as ever
! got into mans Uranium. Neither the
| writer nor any one else knows what the
! silk used would have cost the people If
the 'S525, 600, 900 worth of silks had
not been made in this country. Silks
might have been % cents per yard
higher during the greater part of this
period than they have been had not the
industry been protected, and this great
increase of supply OF silks been made
here. If the duties of 80 per cent. were
taken from silks now, the prices would
undoubtedly soon go up, instead OF
down. for its manufacture in this coun
trv would be ruined. And again, even
if the price was moderately in
creased. it does not follow that
the people of this country would
not be better off by having the
industry established here. One grea
benefit of new industries is that it keeps
the money the products cost, III this
country. 10 increase It's wealth. 1t Il
-, better for the people to have home man
ufacturers made rich, by having th'
products made here, than to have foreign
manufacturers MADE rich by having the
products consumed here made abroad
Your correspondent says:
= hayr hava no III hi
/ vast sum as 4 bonus to about 40 manu-
facturers, that they might grow rich a
the expense of the silk consumers.
The statistics show that 90 per cent o
the cost of manufactured products 30 4
} paw for labor. Out of the S025, GO
7 worth of silks manufactured IN thi
. country in ten years, there have beel
s19, l6S, 900 paid in single year TO tn
laborers employed in producing the silk
and the Materials used cost more thal
$50. 600, 900 in single year. Now, tn
I parties that have produced this raw
4 material, and the laborers employed
A have been largely benefited, and OF
, the other hand, the farmer
= have been benefited by raisiu
, the products needed by the p9ople en-
q ployed in producing the silks made
I That grand old philanthropist, Pete
a Cooper. had the right of tins questio
when he said: ave can buy nothin
q cheap of foreign countries that must /
:, obtained by leaving Our own raw ma
i terials unused, and our laborers unem
; ployed.
4 Every dollars worth Of goods manJ
It faturei IN factories IN this country tend
II 10 reduce the cost Of these goods 10 col
= sumers, both here and IN other cour
q tries. The great increase in silk sooC
: here has lowered the price, both at hon