The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-02-02
MTCLEARY AND HIS TARIFF.
He is Doing Nothing to Relieve the
American Consumer.

Mr.. McCleary is said to be preparing
to lake the effort of his life in favor
OF his maximum and minimum tariff
bill which makes the Dingley rate the
minimum. 1t is, of course, retala-
tory measure against the new German
tariff which will 90 into effect in March
OF this year. Mr.. McCleary has been
gathering statistics and expects to
show that Germany has been buying
largely American meats and meat prod
uCts in anticipation of the cutting off
of American trade under the new tariff
| This loading up in advance is considered
a sign of weakness on the part of Ger
many, which apparently must have our
exports, and if she cannot get them I'M
der her own tariff she will buy them in
advance, hoping to starve us into re-
ciprocal arrangement while she is eat
ing the surplus store accumulated. On
the other hand there have been no eX-
traCrdinary purchases of German goods
i'll America in anticipation of a tariff
wfr. This is, in the McCleary view,
evidence that we do not have to have
the things Germany sends us. But why
should we load up with German goods?
Our tariff has not changed and Ger
many has not proposed an export tax.
Germany, in entering upon a tariff
war with this country, will no doubt
bear the burden of the fight since we
arc selling her foodstuffs and she is sell
ing us manufactured goods, many of
which we could do without or find sub
stitutes for But there is a wider view
OF the question. America is not only
fighting for a wider market for her man
ufaotures. but her own people are en-
titled to more reasonable prices on the
goods they consume. While our tariff
policy is selfish and inequitable, and cal
culated to create hostility toward our
prot ection is even more serious i'll its
consequences at home, because it tends
to foster monopoly and makes it posi-
lie for protected industries combining
with each other to extort from the Am
ercan consumer prices far beyond those
which return reasonable profit to the
manufacturer.
The beautiful theory of protection
that it shall consist only of the differ
encc in the cost of labor incurred here as
compared with that in other countries
has been lost sight of, as well as the add
vantages of manufacture in this country
derived from cheap raw material, low
frtiohts and growing market. On top
OF these, monopoly, aided by unreason-
able protection, adds heavy charges
which the American consumer is forced
to pay. Mr. McCleary is doing nothing
to relieve the American consumer OF TINS
injustice. He is only fastening 1t more
firmly upon him. As we have indicated
in these columns before, this is what Is
going to lead in the not far-distant fu-
tllre to tariff revision. 1t isn't so much,
after all, a question of increasing our
foreign trade as it is of treating our do
nestle consumers decently-a point
which McCleary seems never to take IN
to his calculations. His retaliatory mea-
IRE may make Germany still more hos
tile than she is now, may even break
Down her attempt to get even with us,
but it will afford no relief against the
injustice which overprotected industries
impose upon their domestic customers
Minneapolis Journal.