The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-10-24
a FALLACIOUs ARGUMENT.
Proof Thnt Certain Articles Are Sent
broad and Sold Cheaper Than an
United States.

Messrs. Editors: l have been inform
ed by a gentleman who has heard some
of the debates between the democratic
and the republican candidates in North
Carolina that the latter stoutly deny
the charge that certain articles manu-
featured in the United States are ship
ped abroad n sold 10 foreigners at
lower prices than the Dintley tariff
empowers the manufactures to exact
from our people, and they denounca il
as a democratic lie" 1t is remarkable
that such a denial car come from news
paper readers who are thought to be
fit material for representatives in our
legislature. During me last session cf
congress the Washington Post, whilh
l. not in the habit of manufacturing
democratic lies published { report OF
a conference of republican congressman
in which this same charge was made
by two gentlemen. One OF them said
that a manufacturer OF farming nipple
ments and machinery N Akron. Ohio,
could purchase Pittsburg steel in En-
gland So per ton cheaper than he could
in Pittsburg. This report was copied
in many, if not all, Of our state papers.
and il is not unreasonable to suppose
that ii fell under the eye of every news
papr reader.
But, if the republican candidates any
where in the state failed 10 see this as
well as many other statements about
the ~iniquities Of the tariff act which
Senator Pritchard supported. and 10
which he gives credi for all of our
prosperity" although he does not eX-
plain how under its operation cotton
went down in 1899 to 4 1-2 cents per
pound on u farmers, let me invite
them TO the study of some ables in the
Statistical Abstracts, which is pub
lished each yea by the secretary of the
treasury. and copies Of which can be
obtained by applying To members OF
congress. The latest n in my posses
sion gives statistics up to and including
1899, two years after prosperity" COM
menced On pages 202, zoe, POI, 20S, APO.
42S.429 and 1876 can be Ound the home
and foreign prices for several articles
produced or manufactured in the Unit
ed States, or the total quantities and
values from which the prices can be
easily calculated. Here are some of
them:
| Article. Amount. Home
Foreign Price.
C'tt'n g'ds. uncoTd.1 100 yds. 5 5.21 5 4.40
Sugar. A. ............100 lbs. 4.S0 4.4O
Cut Nails. ..........1 100 lbs. 2.21 1.S3
Steel Rails. ...........Ton 2S.12 1896
Bar Iron. .............Ton 1927 30.9
These were wholesale prices in 1899,
and they are only a few of the evil
dences of the paternal care of the re-
publican party. We have here, for eX-
ample, the proof hat our railroads
must collect out of their patrons $500
on every ton of steel rails they have
purchased which they have been COM
PEELED to contribute as a bonus to the
steel trusts, and hat everybody who
purchases bar iron, or things made of
bar iron, must assist in making up a
bonus of $16.OS on every ton to the
manufacturers of that article.
If these articles were purchased from
foreign manufacturers, the importer
would have to pay q tariff tax of 81
per ton on steel rails and $12 per ton
on bar iron; and these taxes with costs
of transportation added would about
equal the 1922 and the S16.0S. So we
may suppOrse that the domestic manu-
facturer eXacts from our people the
highest price he can under this robber
system. This is the situation today; it
is simply a continuation of the iniquit-
Gus system of robbery which the repub-
lean party has kept up ever since it
came into power. Our people have lived
under it; it has stolen from them the
fruit of their toll; it has don this il
such a way that they could not dis
cover who the thief was, and toda.
millions of them listen to an eXposi-
ton of its injustice as they would lister
to an explanation of the causes of thi
procession of the equinox.
b. F. GRADY.
Clinton, n. c.. October Is.