The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-02-03
4 RAR1 Il EIS.

"a DANIEL COME TO JUDGMENT"
And now comes Hon. Earl S. You
mans, a wealthy, Republican lun,ber-
man Of Winona, Mimi, and protests
against an increase Of the tariff on
lumber. He says:
The lumber manufacturers held a
convention in Cincinnati to bring a
pressure TO bear upon Congress to re-
store the duty on lumber to 81 per NJ.
as it was before the passage Of the
Mckinley blu. They urged that, be-
cause of the removal of that duty, the
price has declined by that amount
and that restoration OF the duty
would give to the manufacturers an
increased price for their product
equal to the amount Of the duty. The
same thing was claimed before the
committee Of ways and means, by the
delegation of lumbermen that was
sent from lumbermen's convention
in Minneapolis.
The lumber manufactured in 1894
from stumpage grown in Minnesota
and Wisconsin was 3 S24 ,O00, 900 feet.
| have no report Of later date. If, as
is claimed by those who are asking for
the restoration Of this tax that the
price is affected by the duty to the
amount imposed, if tue Mckinley bill
had been operative in 1894, the manu-
facturers OIL Stumpage from the two
states above named, would have ex-
torted a tax from the consumers Of
their product, as they had hitherto
under the Mckinley bill, of $3,S24, 900.
While. II the duty Of 81 per NJ. is i'm
posed, as is now asked for and will be
conceded, assuming that there will be
no increase in the product, the annual
tax that lumber manufactures with
in this restricted area can impose for
| their exclusive benefit upon the con-
sumers OF their product is $7,6iS,UUO.
| Admitting for Il moment that the
amount realized from the collection
Of duty for the benefit OF the treasury
would reach the highest amount real
lied from the Mckinley tariff, viz.
$2,437 800; yet for every dollar paid in
| TO the treasury the consumers OF 1un-
| Der pay So as a tax to the manufaC-
| turcr. IL must be borne in mind,
| however, that the impOrtatiOnS I'M
| der watch the treasury realized this
| large sum was under d 81 duty, while
now it is proposed to make the duty
s. for the avOWed purpose Of making
1T SO large as 80 be practically prohi bi-
| tory. So that if this scheme is real
lied the treasury gets mere pittance
and all the duty goes from the pocket
of the consumer to the pocket Of the
manufacturer.
In view Of these facts what LecomeS
Of the shallow pretense THAT the tariff
is to be revised in the interest Of
revenue-that is to say, revenue for
the support OF government? 1t is
most mphatically for revenue, but it
TO- Io
atOr
or course, the article am noticing,
presenting this question from the pre-
tectionist view would not be complete
without an apostrophe to the dignity
Of American labor and the dcgrada
ton Of being compelled to compete in
the matter OF wages with low down
Canucks. l will not inflico upon your
readers nor insult their Intelligence
with statistics in contradiction OF
this ridiculous assumption. A brief
statement Of the facts annihilateS it.
Should they be told that wages in the
pinerics on the Chippewa were higher
than on the St. Croix and that the
mills manufacturing the respective
products maintained the same dis
elimination as TO wages, they would
know the statement to be fabrication
because the St. CrOlX cmploye would
walk over to the Chippewa and avail
himself Of the better market for his
labor and the st. Cro.X employer must
pay the market price or suspend oper-
atons. Now IS per cent Of the labor
employed in the lumber business in
Minnesota. Wisconsin and Canada is
foreign. 1t is made up Of Swedes,
Norwegians, Germans, Poles, Irish aud
Italians. The price paid for the labor
is public and the men employed in one
locality know what is paid in every
other. A dollar for railroad fare or a
days walk will take Canadian la
borer to an American camp. Let it
not be forgotten that there is no duty
on foreign labor. The protected
manufactured is too shrewd to allow
any embargo here. The word free
trade" gives him spasms except when
it is applied to the importation of la