Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1906-07-05
RAPID RISE IN PRICES
Coincident With Enactment of
Present Tariff Law.
COST OF LIVING Is INCREASED

to Plumber the People - The In
creased Output of Gold Its
Purchasing Power and Thus Boosts
Prices the World Over.
1t is ominous for the future of those
who have fixed and limited incomes
from investments in government, rail
road or industrial bonds that their mar
ket price has fallen over . per cent
during the past year and our govern
ment bonds Of 1925 have lost 10 per
cent in five years, in spite of their
being available as a basis for national
bank currency. AS this shrinkage in the
market price of first class securities is
worldwide, the cause must be world
wide also, and it undoubtedly is in
a measure caused by the increased out
put Of gold and therefore the decline in
the value Of The measure of value in all
civilized countries. The output and
supply Of gold is increasing more rap
idly than the output and supply of the
things measured by gold. A specific
amount of gold will not exchange for
as much in other commodities as it
did last year and for very much less
than it did ten years ago. Gold is there
fore losing it's purchasing power, or, as
is commonly said, average prices are
rising. 1t now takes STAT to buy what
81 would have bought nine years ago,
for Dun's index figures show that
prices averaged Al per cent higher on
June l, 1906, than on July /, 1897.
But the decline in the purchasing
power of gold is not the chief
of the rapid advance of prices in the
United States, for in England, which
is on a tariff for evenue basis, the
prices of commodities have not adj
vanced in anything like the same pro-
portion as here. The London Econo-
mist's index number of commercial
prices OF Dec. 81, 1897, was 1880 and
on March 81, 1906, was 2,306, or only
number Of years that u prices have
increased AZ per cent. 1t is therefore
fair to assume that % per cent of the
increase in the rise in prices the world
over has been caused by the increased
output Of gold. That is a natural cause
that no law has interfered with.
But how about the 25 per cent in
crease in prices in this country yer
and above the increase in England?
That can be caused in no other way
than artificially through the tariff law
and it's trust and monopoly fostering.
1t is significant that this rapid rise
in prices in this country is coincident
with the enactment Of the present tar
if law. 1t is also indicative of the
effect of the high protection granted to
manufacturers under that law that the
elimination of the era of trusts and
combines is concurrent with the levy
ing Of the enormous protective tariff
taxes and justifes the conclusion that
the Dingley tariff has fostered the or
ganization of trusts and combines and
Is certainly RESPONSIBLE for at least
% per cent Of increased prices. The
object of trusts and combines being to
monopolize production and control
prices and the high tariff rates pre-
venting competition from abroad, it
naturally follows that under this Re
publican policy the tariff benefciaries
have advanced the price of their prod
ucts as high as the tariff will allow
them to do without inviting the COM
petition Of foreign products. AS trans
p%ortation charges and other costs have
to be added to the price of foreign i'm
ports besides the tariff tax, it is quite
feasible for the trusts and combines
to charge for their products what for
eign goods can be laid down here for,
less the cost Of transportation. Thus
if a knitted shawl is imported from
Germany the duty is A cents per pound
and GO per cent ad valorem, OF over 100
per cent. During the fiscal year ended
June 80, 1905, there was $65, 1925 in
value of these shawls imported, and
the duty paid was $65, 9O3.23. So the
exact tariff tax collected was 100.21
per cent. These are the official figures
published by the bureau of statistics
of Imported merchandise entered for
consumption in the United States and
duties collected thereon, 1900 (See
page 75.) The American manufacturer
can manufacture such shawlS at about
the same cost as the German manufac-
turer can-say $3.50 he can double
the cost and still undersell the for
eign shawl, upon which in addition to
the tariff tax of SIS the freight and 9th
er costs Of importing have to be paid.
The whole wool schedule bristles with
articles upon which the tariff tax eX-
ceeds 100 per cent, some dress goods
exceeding 165 per cent. No wonder the
WOODEN manufacturers are rich and the
cost of living to the consumers has in
creased Al per cent since this plumber
ing Republican tariff law was enacted
in 1897.
Between the loss in the purchasing
power Of wages or incomes through
the decline in the purchasing power Of
gold and the Republican policy of pro
tecting the trusts and combines so
that they a levy their tax which the
tariff allows them to do by increasing
the prices of their products the man
with Il limited income is not as pros.
porous rs he was in 1897 by AZ per