The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-12-05
THE SO-CALLED TARIFF RE-
FORM.

FORM.
We think we have made an effectual
expose of the financial reform(O this
administration has given this country.
If each man will feel in his pockets he
will find that our statements can be
relied upon, for the result is just what
we predicted, and since the work was
done, it has been fully explained so
that any person, ordinarily intelligent,
could understand. Tariff reformO is
Just a little more complicated, but no
greater fraud than the financial re-
form. The purchaser of goods will find
no change for better or worse. Where
reductions are made at all, the former
tariff rate was far out of proportion to
the value of the article itself. For in
stance the tariff on tobacco was 50 per
pound. It can be reduced to 81 so with
out any change either way, as the 50
per pound was simply prohibitory, and
81 81 per pound is prohibitory. The
same can be said of dozens Of other
articles in the reduced" list.
We say the tariff question is more
complicated than the financial, because
there are thousands of articles taxed.
Then it is all mixed up with per
cents" "advalorums" and other
things. The average citizen cam t get
the former rates nor the new ones.
Hence you must necessarily depend
upon the reform papers to expose the
fraud by piecemeal. For instance, we
will make this ex 5ract from a recent
editorial in the Atlanta Journal:
1.-THE abolition of the tariff on wool,
coal, iron, lumber, copper and tin will
be a welcome departure from the Re
publican schedule, and will stimulate
the industries which use those articles
as no amount of Republican protection
could"
Now the above is calculated to de-
ceive a great many people. But the
man who has been voting for tariff re
form for twenty years must be unde-
ceived, and we are going to do it. The
tariff has not been abolished on the
above articles. The new bill puts coal
on the free list. The other articles are
simply reduced. Tho reduction in wool
means that the farmer shall sell his
wool for less, while the manufactured
articles made of wool remain the same.
The tariff on iron, lumber, copper and
tin is ~prohibitory, and means nothing
to III people. There isn't enough tin
manufactured in America to make a
foot tub, and so the reduction on tin
amounts to nothing beneficial. 1.-The
tariff on wooden and cotton goods is
reduced, "says an administration organ
of the A%nnanias stripe. That will not
benefit you, brother. The tariff is pro-
hibitory, and is still left high enough
to prevent foreign competition.
The rich are not left out in the cold,
however. They get their French plate
and cut glass cheaper under the
new bill. But the whiskey trust was
left out in the cold. No reduction
was made for ~''coloring matter for
liquors" The old rate was so per cent,
so is the new. That is probably the
only luxury" that was not reduced or
put on the free list. But when we re-
member that the Ways and Means
don't want their whiskey
monkeyed with, this is readily ex-
planned. The long and short of it is
that the reductions are made from very
high prohibitory rates, and the reduc-
ton does not take off the prohibition,
hence no benefit will be noticed. We
will continue to show up the fraud.