The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-09-30
NECESSITY FOR OPEN MARKETS.

The Smithfieid Herald publishes a
table Of figures showing the difference
in prices for the same articles charged
American and European customers by
manufacturers Of this country. This
table shows what advantage our high
tariff system gives these m~onopoiists.
They have no competition in the home
market and can place their prices here
at any figures they please and the
American has to pay them or do with
out the article. At the same time these
manufacturerers ship the same class Of
goods across the Atlantic and sell them
cheaper han they do at their W doors
in this country. High tariff advocates
tell US the farmer pays no tariff; that
he is not effected by the duties imposed
upon imports; that on the other hand
the import tax is a help to him.. Take
some Of the articles from the list above
mentioned and compare the foreign and
and domestic prices. For fencing wire
the home price placed by manufactur-
ers is $500 per hundred pounds, while
they sell it abroad for $1.37h. Barbed
wire is $3.50 at home, against $1.S6 in
Europe. For wire o they charge the
American consumer 1910 per hundred
pounds, against 1912 to their British
customers. Wire nails are not quite so
bad as wire rope, but there is made a
difference between sos and s1.37 in
favor Of the foreigner. For fruit jars
the prices are 90 and SO cents and sew
ing machines 500, against $13.25. These
are only a few of the long list of ar
ticles Of every day use by the farmer
and the wage Garner on which the high
tariff permits the manufacturer to dis
criminate against the home consumer.
Still we are told that the Dingley tariff
bill by prohibiting foreign competition
in our markets is for the benefit of our
farmers and wage farmers. The repub-
licans advance the absurd theory that
high tariff adds to the prosperity of the
factory owner and through him this
prosperity is passed on to the laborer
and all classes Of wage earners. This
would be an absurd theory to advance
at the inauguration of such a system,
but it is doubly so at his late day
when experience has proven hat +he
prosperity wrought by the high tariff
all stops in first hands. The manufac-
turers do not pass it on as the protec-
tionists claim to be the idea upon which
the system is based. 1t all sticks in
their hands and gets no further. What
the farmer wants and what he must
have to become genuinely prosperous is
to be able to buy in an open market
where there is competition for the sale
of the articles he needs as we'll as to
sell in an open market where there is
competition for the purchase of his
goods.
The great relief that has come to
the tobacco growers of this section is
an illustration of this latter proposition.
This class of farmers is better off finan-
cially than they have been for years
because of the high price of leaf tobac-
co and the great demand for that farm
product. What has caused this? The
reason is plain. For the first time in
years the farmer has sold his tobocco
III tolL oROh AA4o = AAAo
product was controlled by one of the
geratest trusts in America. There was
but buyer in the market and the
farmer had to take whatever price this
trust saw fit to offer him. This year a
rival company has entered the market
and there is competition for the possess
sion of the tobacco; hence the farmer
gets the true value of his product. The
entrance into the tobacco market of this
competitor of the tobacco trust and
the results of this competition shows
the farmers how they have been op-
pressed for years by this monopoly. 1t
is a law of trade that competition in the
sale of articles tends to reduce the price
and competition in the purchase raises
1t. This cannot be disputed. Ameri-
cans are DECEIVED of the advantages of
the former by the high tariff law of
the country and a large class of our
farmers of the latter through the fos-
tering of tits tobacco trust by the re-
publican party, as it fosters all other
trusts form-d for the purpose of keep
ing down tn price of raw materials and
raising the cost of the manufactured
article. Still we are asked to believe
that protection is for the good of all
the people and that all derive benefit
therefrom.