Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-07-10
New York News.

power OF gold is not the chief cause OF
the rapid advance of prices in the
United States, for. in England, which
is on a tariff for revenue basis, The
prices of commodities have not ad-
vanced in anything like the same pro-
portion as here. The London Econo-
mist's index number of commercial
prices on Dec. 81, 1897, was 1880, and
on March 81, 1906, was 2,306, or only
about b per cent increase in the same
number of years that our 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 % per cent in
crease In prices in this country over
aud 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 co-incident
with the enactment of the present tariff
law. 1t is also indicative of the effect
Of the high protection granted TO man
ufacturers under that law that the cul-
Mutation of the era of trusts and COM
bines Is concurrent with the levying of
the enormous protective tariff taxes
and justitieS the conclusion that the
tn riff hn mi
cation of trusts and combines and is
certainly responsible for at least % per
cent of increased prices The object
of trusts and combines being to mon
opollze production and control prices
and the high tariff rates preventing
competition from abroad it naturally
follows that under this Republican pol
icy thetarlff beRefciaries have advanced
the price of their products as high as
the tarjff Will allow them TO do. with
out inviting the competition of foreign
products. AS transportation charges
and other costs have to be added TO the
price of foreign imports besides the
tarif tax. II is quite feasible for the
trusts and combines to charge for their
products what foreign goods can be laid
down here for. less the cost of transpor-
tatiOG Thus ii knitted shawl is Inn
ported from Germany the duty is Al
cents per pound and so per cent al
valorem or over Ice per cent During
the fiscal year ending June so, 1905,
there was $50. 76l.2 % In value of these
shawls imported and the duty paid
was S65. 903.2S. SO the exact tariff tax
collected was 100.21 per cent These
are the official figures published by the
Bureau of Statistics of Imported mer
chandiSe entered for consumption in the
United States and duties collected
thereon 1905 (see page 75l. The
American manufacturer can manufae-
ture such Shawls at about the same cost
as the German manufacturer can. say
81. so he can double the cost and still
undersell the foreign shawl. upon which
In addition 10 the tariff tax af s., the
freight and other costs Of importing
have to be paid The whole wool Sched
ule bristles with articles upon which
the tariff tax exceeds 100 per cent, some
dress goods exceeding i65 per cent. No
wonder the wooden manufacturers are
rich and the cost of living 10 the con
sumers has increased a. per cent since
this plundering Republican tariff law
was enacted in 1897.
Between the loss In the purchasing
power of wages, g incomes, through
the decline in the purchasing power Of
gold and the Republican policy OF pro
tectlng the trJi sts and combines so that
they can levy their tax which the tariff
allows them ID do. by increasing the
prices OF Their produces. the man with
a limited ineo lie is not as prosperous
ms he was In lisI by Al per cent for he