The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-14
THE REACTIONS OF TARIFFS.

THE REACTIONS OF TARIFFS.
True Of all regulative enactments. it
Is strikingly true Of laws intended to
regulate trade and commerce that two
results are certainties, one that the in
tended result will not be reached, and
the other that what results will ensue
no man can foresee. The Dingley bill
promises to illustrate afresh this truth,
If it contains the tax on lumber when
1t reaches the presidents pen that it
had when it left the house. The DUR
pose of the 81 thousand tax on lum-
Der was to prevent the importation of
lumber from Canada. AS Mr.. Weyer-
haeuser said in his interview: with a
81 tariff L presume we could practi
cally make Importation unprofitable;"
that is, prohibit it. That it will not
have that effect the experience Of the
same rate from 1883 to 1890 attests,
while it may have the effect Of increas-
ing the price to domestic consumers.
After the election had insured a con-
gressional majority pledged by it's ma
t1onal platform to the policy Of reel
procity, the Dominion of Canada sent
commissioners to Washington at the
opening of the short session to ascer-
tain If that policy would be extended
to trade with their country: but if is
evident, from the reciprocity provision
that they met with the same rebuff
a similar commission met with in 1890
Ihereupon, Canadians began to talk
OF retaliation, very humanity and nat
uralIy' Men smitten on one cheek have
not yet reached the point Of humility
where they will turn the other for q
blow. The unexpected results Of this
OIL Will then appear. An export dutv
VIII De put on Canadian logs, and many
mills IN this country that now run on
them will be closed and manv mon
thrown out of employment. Another re-
COLI threatened will be wider in it's eff
fects and less to be foreseen. 1t will
affect every publisher Of newspapers
ana OF the cheaper class Of books
through the makers of the paper on
which they are printed
practically, all Of this kind of paper
IS now made from spruce wood and
the supply of this for all the Eastern
and middle Western mills. and soma Of
the Western ones, comes from Canada
1t comes either in the stick. cut TO
cord-Wood length, or in pulp ground in
canada. Most of the more Easterlv
mills own large tracts of spruce- baar-
ing lands in Canada, 1000 square miles
OF such land being either owned or
leased by makers of paper pulp and
paper makers in the United States Tn
retaliation for the lumber tax. aimad so
uliectly and purposely at Canadians.
the Dominion government will nut an
export duty of like amount on all loos
exported, which will be equivalent -
81 a cord on the spruce for the paper
mills, advancing the price Of puIn g.
ton. Eighty per cent of the ma
terlal In the paper used by newspaners
Is ground wood pulp, and the increase
ton Twenty per cent Of the material
Is sulphite, requiring two cords of wood
10 produce ton, and the resulting in
crease in that article would be 50 a ton
increasing the cost of paper 81. 20 a ton.
me output of Eastern mills is 1.5oO
tons day, and the enhanced cost of
paper would thus be 1900 a dav or
1901 200 a year, to be paid by those who
ouy print paper. The addition of this
cost TO paper made by mills in the
middle West and West would bring
this increase to at least twice that
amount. The Dingley bill. embodyinp
the policy called McKinleyism, is thus
seen to resemble those old-fasbionad
guns that were quite as dangerous in
the breech as at the muzzle.