The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1905-09-14
PEARL BUTTONS AND UNCUT
DIAMONDS

1t cannot be denied that the speech
If Secretary Shaw at the Virginia
Convention was, from a
partisan point of view, adroit and
effective. To illustrate the beneticence
Of the prohibitive tariff Mr.. Shaw select
ed two subjects and used them we'll, one
Of them especially assuming that me
have short memories, which is ordinarily |
a safe assumption. Mr.. Shaw went
back to the Mckinley bill and told his
audience how easy it is for Congress to
build up great industries. The late Mr..
he said, while preparing the
tariff bill of 1890, looking over the
customs reports. discovered that a large
number of pearl buttons were being
imported. He made inquiry among his
associates in Congress and learned
that clam shells suitable for the purpose
were to be found in abundance in the
Mississippi and other rivers. Then he
put a paragraph in the bill to this
effect: Whoever brings a dollars
worth of pearl buttons into the United
States shall deposit % cents in the
Treasury of the United States. I'm
mediately someone established a factory
on the banks of the Mississippi, and
other factories We're started, and now
several million dollars are paid each
year to labor as a result of a very small
act of craftsmanship. This is most
attractive way of stating the facts, and
produced great enthusiasm among the
good Republicans of the Old Dominion.
But the statement can be made another
way, and way that accords more
strictly with the real facts of the case.
1t appears that along about 1889
several wealthy gentlemen who had
been liberal contributors to the Republi
can campaign fund in 1888, and who en-
joyed the confidence Of the grand old
party and possessed influence in its
councils, looking over the customs re-
ports discovered that a great many
pearl buttons were imported from
Austria. They formed syndicate and
went hotfooted to that country, bought
all the pearl buttons in sight and con
tracted to buy all the output of the
mills for six months in advance, then
returned home and after their buttons
had got safely through the custom
house induced Congress to ordain that
if anyone else should bring in a dollars
worth of pearl buttons he should de-
posit % cents in the Treasury of the
United States. OF course no one else
brought in any great amount, and this
enterprising syn cate made
a fortune. That is the true history of
how that small act of craftsmanship
came to be performed.
But this is not ALL Other influential
syndicates, later on, made contracts
with four penitentiaries in the States
along the Mississippi river for the con-
vict labor and established pearl button
factories within the walls, the laborer
getting nothing, the syndicates getting
rich, and every working man in the
whole broad land who bought dozen
pearl buttons for his children's clothes
was taxed % per cent, to contribute to
that wealth.
Is it really craftsmanship to tax
every home to the extent of, say, $40,
100000 in order that S5,000,000 shall be
paid to honest Notwithstanding that
now there are pearl button factories
outside the penitentiaries
Some years ago 1.-THE German COVER
ment offered a subsidy to encourage
the export of beet sugar, and the Ger
man sugar refiners were enabled tc
/ undersell the retiners in other coun-
tries. A committee of British refiners
waited upon the Governments and begged
for tariff on German sugar. Without
that protection. they said, their rein
cries would be ruined and the labor EN-
ployed would be idle. The reply wa:
an answer to the protective theory
Let Germany tax her people and pay he
subsidy and our people will be getting
the benefit Of it by buying their suga
cheap. And for every workman who
loses his job in the refneries, two will
be employed by the confectioners.
i Mr.. Shaw's other illustration of tn,
benefits of tariff was more happy
He said:
}; A few years ago some diamond mer
chants in New York suggested that
uncut diamonds were put on the FIRE
list, and the duty retained on cut dia
monds, they would employ damon
cutters to cut them in this country
Uncut diamonds were therefore place
on the free list and 10 per cent. ad va
loren duty was placed on cut diamond
unset and so per cent. placed on Sc
, stones. What is the result? Their
are now 1000 diamond cutters in thi
: country getting big wages for it is
{ delicate thing to cut diamonsd)and the
earn in the aggregate several millio
dollars.
This is in accord with the theory O
the tariff reformer in two particular
!, 1t puts raw material Oh the free list, an
}. it is tax upon luxuries. People ca
get along very we'll without diamond
\ and if they insist upon having them k
! them pay the price. The two thousan
r laborers who have been imported to q
this work will in all probability say
0 their wages and carry them back
: their old homes. Still, let them ia
n diamonds if they want to, although nj
much of the tax goes into the Treasul
o of the United Statcs.-Baltimore Sun.
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