The Minneapolis journal., 1902-07-29
CONFIDENTIAL ExPoRT RATE SHEETS

Judge Grfggs, of Georgia, chairman OF
the national democratic congressional
campaign committee, has secured from
some exporting house In New York one
of the confidential export price lists which
the committee has been diligently seek
ing, and is beaming with JOY, and declar-
ing that the committee IS adequately PAN
oplied for the campaign with such ma
terial In hand.
The list in the hands Of the committee
shows dozen articles which are sold to
foreigners at a reduced rate, greatly
reduced rate in some cases, as wire nails,
$2.25 per keg to Americans and $3.50 to
foreigners; wire rope, s12 per coil to
Americans and IS to the foreigners; lead,
per 100 pounds, 81, reduced to 50 shovels,
s7.50a dozen, reduced to $3.50; axle grease,
s cents per pound reduced to cents;
washboards, SO dozen, reduced to $220;
alarm clocks, SO cents, reduced to 80
cents; lawn mowers, $4.25. reduced to
$2.75; typewrfters, $1oo, reduced to- $55,
and sewing machines, $40, reduced to SIT.
These are very large discounts from reg
uIar rates. The Industrial commission
has reported instances Of such discounts
TO foreign buyers, but it did not find that
the practice was general. It was In use
back in the seventies, and there was
much talk about it, but it was not pushed
democratically as campaign material. The
Singer Sewing Machine company were
selling machines in this country at that
time for $75 to- $50 and selling the same
article abroad at $22 and even less.
The position taken by tie makers Of
these confidential export rate sheets Is
that the reduced rates are only applied
when there is large accumulated sur
plus which it is desirable to get rid Of,
In the case of an article Of American
manufacture, or, when a lot of goods of
obsolete pattern, not saleable in this
country, may be dumped on European
community. These are plausible explain
ations and it is possible that the demo-
cratic committee Will not find such cam
paign material as useful as Judge Griggs
imagines 1t will be. with only one export
rate sheet on hand and an economic sit
uation somewhat complicated, the com
fnitteer In pushing the matter into the
campaign might discover that they are
handling a boomerang. The committees
plan Of action is to assert that the home
market is used to pay running expenses
and take moderate profit while the for
efgn market is used to secure an accre'
tion of net profit, by selling home man
ufactured goods at greatly reduced rates.
It would seem that, with such enormous
profits to be had by selling at home, the
\ American would sell at home SO long as
there is demand for the article he
makes. It is easy to see, however, that
there are times when the surplus product
congests the market and naturally the
foreigner gets the lower price. There Is
difference of 81 in the price Of wire
rope per coil in favor of the foreigner.
for instance.
The rate sheet shows a large amount of
over protection OF that there is no
doubt. The American manufacturer who
exports, certainly will not habitually sell
practice of cutting rates, as indicated by
the export rate sheet which has been
quoted, is not general, it is Still shown
that a considerable number OF articles on
our tariff schedules are given measure
Of protection far exceeding the true and
just canon of protective duties, which is
to lay upon the article to be protected a
sum equal to the difference between the
cost of producing the foreign article and
the cost of producing the article of domes-
tic manufacture.
This matter of over protection and the
violation of the. true law of protection
has at last, even convinced such an or
gan Of extreme high projections as the
American Economist to concede that
there Is some ground for the assertion