The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1902-06-13

illusions; another, that those
efforts should meet with some sue
cess. For it is a well-knOwn fact
that a theory has only to bring in
some money to some class of men
in order to find earnest defenders,
however opposed it may be to
common knowledge and to com
mon sense; and, another, that a
doctrine needs only to be taught
confidently and emphatically
enough in order to find adherents.
Let us see, then, what the tariff
advocates have to say for them
selves. Accordingly, we find
them one and all insisting as
though it were an established and
certain truth, on the view that
the duty is something paid by the
foreign producer, in order to
secure his goods admission into
our markets. This being assumed,
great deal else very easily
follows. The Protection loving
orator, in his campaign speeches,
! dwells longer on this point than
any other. His opponents are Gin
the >erI ice Of foreigners, seeking
to have them relieved of this pay
ment; he himself, like the ardent
patriot he is, insists that the for
eigners must pay it. How absurd
in us to pay our taxes when here
is a way in which the foreigner
can be made to pay them for u.s."
How unjust, too, to take a loyal
citizen of our country, who has
borne all the obligations of a
citizen, and leave him only the
same show in the market that is
allowed an alien who hears none
of those obligations" And so on,
and so on. 1t is easy to build up
a towering edifice when the fOun-
dation is granted; but the whole
structure collapSes when once the
foundation is knocked from under
when once it is settled that the
import tax is ~ charge on the
goods, and that if the foreigner
pays it to get them admitted he
always taken the best of care to
get it back out of the user of his
goods.
FACTS EASY OF PROOF.
The fact that the great mass of
articles protected in this country
are more costly here than they
are in Great Britain is one proof
of this. Second. the fact that the
explanation so comforting to
Projections champions is one
that never occurred to any one in
the earlier days oftaritf agitation,
is quite suggestive. The invention
Of this explanation (that it was
the foreigner who finally paid the
duty evidently awaited the day
when people had forgotten what
prices used to be before the duty
way imposed. A third proof is in
the common sense of the thing.
Suppose that some foreigner pays
81 duty on an article and sells it
here for 81, is it probable that he
would sell it for 81 or for 50 if
there was no duty? His profits on
sales here connot be very different
from what they are at home,
either higher of lower, as a gen
eral rule, for he has competitors,
and the one who get hold of the
more profitable trade would
finally drive the other out; so
that 81 must be his price at home.
Again, but for the duty he could
not charge a much higher price
here than at home, for fear that
we might take to buying Of home
customers instead of himself
directly. Manifestly, then. the
same SO would be his price to us
If there were no duty, and it is
hardly worth while to bother
about who first pays duty so
long as we know that it is Jumped
with the price of the article in
the end. [ know very we'll that
this reasoning does not apply
when the producer holds a mo-
nopoly, or when this country con-
talns the only consumers, or when
the demand, elsewhere, or the
supply, is very limited; and it
does apply to the great mass OF
articles.
TO be Continued Neat Week.
! LEE SAYS GET TOGETHER.