The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1894-04-21


Pretending TO produce cheap
er manufactured goods by repeal
of duties on free raw material. it
reduces the wages of labor, in
creases the profits Of a favored
class OF manufacturers, and does
not reduce the selling cost of
what factories produce. In the
language of once popular
song,
il starvcs the poor TO feed the rich,
It's good for tn govt aud bad for tn
itch.
Let us consider the gift of
free and untaxed coal" The
duty on bituLlinous coal is sew
enty-five cents per ton. Let us
assume that the free traders are
right when they say that the
tariff is tax added TO the price
OF the thing on which duty is
levied.
Colonel Lamb, in his tractate
On Free Coal for New Eng
land" says that the mills OF Fall
River produced COP. $50. 600 yards
OF finished material by "a con
sumption of III, 800 Tons of coal;
this was in the yeur 1891, under
q seventy-five cents duty on coal.
If the seventy-five cents duty be
removed, and If coal be free of
duty in 1894, and If the mills
then produce the same amount
of finished material by the same
consumption of coal, then the
cost of production will be less by
just twenty-five one thousand
parts OF one cent per yard. 1t is
plain that this will not cheaper
prices TO the consumer.
But it will put liz, 800 times
seventy five cents, which amounts
TO 1882, 975, into the pockets of
those whom the free traders
have been accustomed to call
1.-THE robber barons of manufact.
urers.n 1t will force the Ameri-
can owner OF coal mines to cut
down the wages of his operators
in order that he may compete
with the free and untaxed coal
of Nova Scotia, or it will force
him TO close his mines. In eth
or event, those whom the free
traders used TO delight to call
"our oppressed workmen" will
be Injured for the sole benefit of
those whom they used to call
'bloated tyrants" and "robber
barons.'
Furthermore, one OF the
great carpet factories pro
duced 100000 yards of
carpets on a consumption
of $1,000 tons OF coal. The
duty on this at seventy-five cents
per ton would be $50, 900. If this
amount be deducted from the
present cost of the carpets, the
lessening of cost at wholesale
would be one and one-eigth mills
a yard. Clearly no reduction to
the retail buyers .is5 in sight.
But, on the. fee trade theory of
'tariff is tax added TO the cost
of coal, this rich firm OF manu-
facturers would be presented
with $12, 900 year by the sup
porters of the Wilson bill.
Again, a large shoe firm pro
duced 10000 pairs Of mems
shoes by the use of 300 tons of
coal IL coal were made seventy
five cents q ton cheaper by the
repeal of the duty, then the cost
of producing one pair of shoes
would be reduced by one and q
half mills.
The same absurdity is evident
wherever analysis of the relative
value of raw material TO cost of
the manufactured article is made.
Free raw material cannot cheaper
prices at retail All that IL can
do is to present large bonuses to
certain manufacturers, and that
by direct oppression OF the own
ers OF the mines or flocls from
which free raw material Is OBJ
tanned, and by reduction of the
wages OF laborers in the iudus
tries productive of raw material.
The Wilson bill properly may
be described, says the Inter
Ocean, as IAN act TO make the
American lean and 10 grease the