The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-02-10
A TARIFF FOR DETrcrr osLr.

The British tariff and the Mckinley tar
Id are models OF opposite systems. The
Wilson tariff. ~ the abisst Democratic
journals admit. IL neither fish, flesh, fowl
or red herring. It is not tariff for rev.
enue only, for Chairman Wilson admits
that IL will reduce the revenue SIS ,Ooo, 900
year. and the secretary Of the treasury
in his report urged loan Of $500 900, 900.
The Wilson tariff strips the farmers and
other producers, unless they grow rice
at the South, OF every particle Of pro-
lection and pretends to confer the addi-
tionai protection of free raw materials
upon the manufacturer.
Mr.. Wilson says that he proposes to tax
the finished product. not the processes
and materials of industry. But farming
is an industry and wool Is its finished pro-
duet. and yet wool Is placed on the free
list Cotton ties. finished product of
steel. made at the North and used at the
South, Is on the free list. while the pigs or
blooms from which il is made are left pro
tec,ed. IL crude materials bad to be i'm
ported. under the protection policy they
would come in free, but as most of them are
produced here and are all subjected TO for
eign competition, why should they be
placed on the free list to the paralysis of
our own capital and the reduction of the
wages of our own labor1
Mr.. Wilson reasons that the duty 4, a
tax on the consumer, whether a foreign or
domestic article IL used. This is an error
of fact, since In many cases the price is
lower than the duty. Internal compe,i.
ton has steadily reduced the price. as in
the case OF steel rails, cotton ties, linseed
oil aud many other articles. Mr.. Wilson
argues that free raw materials will enahls
Us TO capture the foreign market, but to do
this We risk the loss of our home market
which is UNNECESSARILY superior to all the
markets Of The world. Mr.. Wilson makes
the common mistake that the economic
conditions in Great Britain ana our own
country are the same, for the British
foreign trade is twice as large as its home
trade, while our home trade is twenty
times as large as our foreign trade. Mr..
Wilson Is like a man who, having a horse
would barter his horse for a saddle, trust
ing to luck 10 steal back the horse. Few
OF our home manufactures are sold abroad
for profit, and those tina, are favored hv
the reciprocity treaties the Wilson bill pro-
poses 10 kill. England sells abroad. but
Lord Salisbury and Balfour both confess
that Germany, Belgium aud France are
fast taking away her home market. For.
eign markets are glutted, aud to sell there
we must sell at the lowest prices, and
must, therefore, cut down our labor 10 The
lowe0 price.
suppose we undertook to sell cotton
cloth to India; We could not do il, for
India pays but 10 cents day IN mills that
use the sanae machinery as we do, speed il
IS high. run Il more hours and pay less
than one-teath Of car wages Even Brit.
ish cottons have lost that market An
exchange Of American flour for Cuban
sugar Is an exchange Of non-eompetitive
products, bat an exchange Of Massachu-
sets eossons Tor Lancashire eottons would
be OF no advantage, Tor we would have 10
cot wages 80 the level OF Lancashire
When the duty Is reduced as Mr.. Wilson
proposes foreign makers who have chsape-
plants, capital and laho- viii capture the
American market and when they have
drsyen she Americans cut Of the business
they will raise tie price as they did wears
age on tin plate, and then our working
people cat OF employment or reduced 20
tree trade wages ali. have severe objes.
lesson Of non-pEosscsiye duties.
or tie sectional nature ard inten. Of the
wilson taFsa h.lg there IS noaouhs. Judge
Lee. Of Athens. Ga, an ous-and-out free
iEaisr. frankly eoafssses that the Wilson