The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-21
LOWER PRICES TO FOREIGNERS.


1t has been often asserted, and is
generally believed, that many tariff
protected American manufactures sell
for lower prices in foreign countries
than they do in the United States.
Proof of this has been many times Of
fered. For instance, last January
American steel rails were sold in Eng
land for $3.50 per ton, after paying
all freight charges. And the ocean
freight alone on steel rails at that time
was $5.11 per ton. At the same time
the price of steel rails In the
United States was $2s per ton. Thus
American purchaser were forced to
pay in the neighborhood of $11 per ton
more than English purchasers for
American steel rails. A year or so
ago a Savannah merchant was on a
visit to Germany. In one of the large
German cities he saw for sale line
of certain mechanical apparatus. In
the line was an exact duplicate of an
apparatus that the Savannah merchant
had purchased just before he sailed
for Europe, paying therefor $3.50. He
priced the article in the German store,
and found that it sold there for exactly
one hundred dollars less! The two ar
ticles, one in the Savannah mans store
and the other for sale in Berlin. were
from the same manufacturer in Ohio
and were counterparts of each other,
yet, thanks to the tariff, the Savan-
nah man was forced to pay 800 more
for the apparatus that his brother in
Germany could have bought it for in
Berlin.
While facts like the foregoing have
been brought out from time to time,
it has never been possible to prevent
anything like a comprehensive sehed-
ule of the higher prices which Ameri-
can purchasers are forced to pay, for
the reason that the special discount
sheets of exporters are secret docu-
ments and are extremely hard for any
person outside of the trade to get hold
of. The Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee is making strong
efforts to get hold of one or more of
these discount sheets, offering a. large
confdend that the special discount
prices quoted to foreign purchasers of
tariff protected articles, set in parallel
columns with the prices charged
American purchasers, would make such
a showing as to arouse the righteous
indignation of the American people.
Such a document would show con-
n1ncfxynIxy haf ha at.iAf fe fnn
not for the benefit of Americans but
of foreigners; and not only that, but
American consumers are actually be-
ing robbed through the tariff in order
that foreign consumers may have low
er prices than foreign manufacturers
charge. even with their so-called pau
per labor.
Pierpont Morgan, talking some time
ago of the steamship consolidation,
said there was no sentiment in bust
ness; it was the dividends that count
ed. That is just as applicable to the
export trade of the protected Ameri-
can trusts as it is to the shipping trust.
the American people, and if they can
make bigger dividends by gouging
American consumers as a means of
aiding in capturing foreign markets,
why, the American consumers are go
ing to get gouged just as long as the
tariff stands unreformed.
The American people wish to see
American manufactures predominant
in all the markets of the world, but
they desire it accomplished upon a
legitimate basis and not by means OF
robbery. They do not wish to pay the
cost of it by enforced contributions
out of their own pockets. There is no
good reasn why they should be held
UP for these contributions, and as
soon as they can be brought to see
plainly that they are being held up
and robbed, they will not submit to it.
s~