The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1899-02-03
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1899
THE TARIFF.
THE Blade last week gave us
little treatise on the tariff, in

sound pretty well, and all they lack
of being convincing is the one little
fact that they are simply errors and
are easily seen to be such by little
thought.
The Blade tells us that nails and
wire have advanced some under the
Dingley bill. That is true; so have
wheat and corn and hogs and cattle.
If the Dingley bill caused one, is it
not as reasonable to suppose that it
caused the other? The facts are,
the great impetus given to manufac-
turing and agricultural interests and
the employment of all idle labor at
increased wages by the Dingley law,
have caused an advance in the price
of most manufactured and agricul-
tural products from the ruinously
low prices prevailing on all these
lines during the Cleveland free-trade
regime.
The Blade in its statement gets
custom receipts and internal revenue
receipts strangely confounded. 1t
is very true we are paying direct
tax in the line of revenue stamps on
checks, drafts, bonds, deeds, ETC.,
put on to meet the extra demands
of war expenses, which, with our
regular internal revenue collections,
amounts to a very large sum OF
money; but the Dingley law has
nothing to do with these taxes or
the object for which the stamp tax
was created. The Dingley law was
a peace measure designed to raise a
portion of the necessary running ex-
penses of the government during
times of peace, Itwas not designed
to raise the funds necessary to carry
on foreign war, nor was it expect
ed to yield all the money necessary
to run the government during times
of peace.
1t has been the custom and policy
of the Republican party for years to
so regulate the tariff that it paid APP
proximately half of the running ex-
penses of the government, and the
balance is raised by the internal
revenue tax. The Dingley law has,
as shown by government reports,
raised few millions more than was
estimated for it, and while it has
not paid the heavy war expenses, it
has more than paid the proposed
one-half of the natural expenses of
the government in times of peace,
which are about 81, 900, 900 a day.
And now on the Blades theory,
backed up by supposed quotation
from the Globe Democrat, which, if
ever published in that paper was
published long years ago when the
Globe was not exactly orthodox,
that "The tariff is direct tax" let
US see: The Blade refe:s to halls
again-a most unhappy reference
for its theory. When the Mckinley
tariff was first placed on wire nails
they were imported practically free
from England and were sold in this
country at to 10 cents per pound.
The Mckinley tariff imposed tax
on them of 4 cents per pound, and
that tariff is still on. According to
the theory advanced that "the tar
if is tax" nails should now be sell
ling at IL 10 IA cents per pound.
The fact is, they are selling at to
3 cents per pound, with duty of 4
cents per pound. Who pays the
revenue in this case? Does the
Blade think it is a tax on the con-
sumner?
Before the Mckinley tariff was
placed on tin the wholesale price of
Wooster tin, all imported, in Kan
sas City was SI3 per box; now a
better grade of tin, made in the
United States, can be bought in
Kansas City for So per box, and the
tariff of cents per pound still re-
mains. Was the tariff tax on the
consumer in this case2
The same law holds good with all
manufactured articles that we can
make in this country, and we have
found out that we can make about
everything We need. When we want
to cheaper a manufactured com,
modify that is extensively used in
this country, but manufactured to a
considerable extent in a foreign
country, we simply place an ample
tariff on the importation, and Ameri-
can capital takes hold of the matter,
and American genius soon learns
how to cheaper the manufacture by
use of improved appliances, and the
results are cheapened commodity
to the consumer.
Silk is another notable example OF
the cheapening influence of the tar
if. Why, silk has got so cheap
that it is not very fashionable any
morel