The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-09-21

interests of the country west of the
Missouri, with its free wool, free lum-
Der and free ore provisions. This state
ment lacks the usual denunciation of
the new tariff bill that is generally
made by Republicans, and hence is far
more worthy of consideration than the
ordinary expressions of opinion con-
corning the new tariff.
Wool is the one great raw material
of Utah that is put upon the free list
Since it was placed there it has risen
in price, and today is higher than it
was under the Mckinley bill when re-
pealed. If a duty on wool was for the
purpose of benefiting the wool-grower
then 1t failed most signally of its pur-
pose, for there is no disputing the fact
that every time the tariff on wool was
raised the price of it went down This
is accounted for from the fact that
there is a relation between a tariff on
any article and the price of the article.
In the case of wool the tariff had just
the opposite effect from that intended
by those who procured it. It was their
intention to raise the price Of wool;
the tariff lowered it Why was this?
Because tax upon wool was equiva-
lent to a tax upon the manufacture of
wool, with the consequence that if the
manufactures of wool we're to main
tain their hold in the market they
must continue to be sold at their form
er price. which could only be done by
making their cost the same as former
ly. To do this it was necessary to re-
duce either the price of the materials
entering into their manufacture or re-
duce the labor cost. The consequence
was that foreign wool being shut out
of the country by prohibitive tariff,
the demand for the domestic article
was also reduced, and with the lessen
ed demand the price went down. Then
the fall in the price OF wool must be
attributed to the raising of the tariff
on it, on the theory that when a GER
tain result is observed when two
things are present, and no such result
is observed when one or other of these
things is absent, the presence of the
two things together is, the cause of the
result observed
But on the question of customs dut-
les on raw materials, the views of that
most eminent advocate of profession to
American industries Francis Bowen,
Afford professor of natural religion,
moral philosophy, and civil polity in
Harvard university, should have great
weight with all protectionists, and es-
pecially those who are opposed to free
raw materials. He says:
Customs duties on raw materials, I'M
ported for purposes of manufacture
within the country, are so obviously
ineXpedient that they would never be
imposed, except from vague impress
sion that the domestic producer ought
to have an advantage equivalent to
that which the domestic manufacturer
obtains from the duty on the importa-
ton Of the foreign manufactured arti-
Gle, or that and one article ought to be
taxed about as much as another, in
order that the aggregate burden of
taxation might be equally distributed
among all Classes of the people But
this is the reasoning of ignorant or
shortsighted persons, who cannot see
that to impose duties Unfortunately
is only to duplicate, or increase in
some higher ratio, the burden of taxa
ton, and to sacrifice many of it's in
direct advantages or compensa tons,
without any gain to the treasury Du-
ties upon raw materials are equivalent
to tax upon domestic manufactures;
and this amounts to a tax upon the la
Dor, especially the skilled labor, of the
country, or to a general reduction of
wages.