Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-01-18
HIGH COST or LIVING.
Protective Tariff and Imitation the
Causes-No Probable Relief
Until 1000.

lou VINO nave Snail incomes, who
have hitherto with strict economy had
enough to live upon, are now suffering
rom advancing prices and find it diff
cult TO make both ends meet. This
state of affairs will probably continue
until after the next presidential cleo
ton. The only relief for you is to in
crease your income, if that is possible,
and it is useless to advise in a general
way how that can be accomplished.
Each individual case has its own prob
lem. With most an increase Of wages
is the only possible way of relief.
Such voters are more interested in
the cause of the present high prices
for the necessaries of life than those
with more ample incomes, who can,
by looping off some luxuries, still live
comfortably.
Present high prices proceed from
two causes and bstn are the result
OF Republican policies. The first cause
Is the enormous imitation of the cur
rency, both by the increased output of
gold and the new national bank cur
fency issued by the small banks, es-
tablished since the act allowing the in
corporation of banks with $25, 900 cap
ital. Also the result of another clause
of the same act amending the old law,
so that banks are receiving par in
currency for the bonds they deposit
with the United States treasury, in
stead of only 80 per cent. under the old
law.
Without taking space to show the
details of this enormous imitation of
the currency, it is only necessary to
say that whereas the average circula-
ton per capita in 1896 was $21.4 Al, now
it is $31.40 and advancing at the rate
of about one dollar per capita, or $780,
o0O,O DOC a year. How much further this
imitation will go is an unsettled prob
lem, but the output of gold is still in
creasing.
The Democratic claim in 1896 Of the
quantitative theory-that the volume
of money in circulation fixes prices for
commodities-is justified by events,
but that contention was not intended
to be accompanied with trust extor-
ton.
The second reason for a still greater
advance in prices is the organization of
trusts and combines to control and mo-
nopolize production. The enacting of
the Dingley tariff bill by the Repub-
leans in 1897, which greatly increased
The protective duties on most articles
Ct consumption, has fostered these
trusts and combines to an extent never
anticipated even by it's authors. The
average rate of duty collected on the
value of these imports taxed, is close
to so per cent. That enormous tax and
much higher per cent. on most trust
productions protects the trusts from
foreign competition and has allowed
them to advance prices about 40 per
cent. on the average and still monopo-
lie the home market. The enormous
profits that many of the combines have
made has stimulated production so that
the American people have been unable
to purchase all the trusts have pro-
duced, the total amount being beyond
the power Of the people to purchase.
To dispose of this surplus the trusts
have been and still are selling this sur
plus in foreign countries at much less
price than they sell the same products
here for. The tariff has protected the
trusts in doing this and, of course, they
demand that this protection be con-
tinued.
The Republican party has agreed to
stand pat"-that is, not revise the
tariff. When the Dingley tariff bill
was enacted, it provided for reciprocity
with foreign nations, and it was the
intention that reciprocity treaties shall
be ratified with foreign countries, by
making mutual concessions of about
25 per cent of the duties on those spe-
sial produces each wanted to sell, and
the duties were purposely raised 25
per cent. to owe that proposed dis
sount. Such treaties were negotiated
by President Mckinley, but the Repub-
lican majority in the senate, controlled
by the trusts, have, refused to ratify
those treaties and so the trusts con-
tinue to exact the enormous profits that
the tariff protects them in extorting.
The government receives but a small
percentage of the tariff tax, for the
tax being sc high it prevents impor-
tations, but the trusts add an average
OF about 40 per cent. to the price Of
their products because the tariff pre-
vents foreign goods from coming into
this country and competing with them.
We thus have the astounding anomaly
of the trusts virtually collecting tie
grearer part of the tariff tax by in
creastng their prices, which the tariff
protects them in doing, while the rev.
enues are not sufficient to run the gov
ernmeat.
The tariff is, therefore, the chief
cause Of high prices. The Democrats,
and some Republicans who are honest
enough 20 oppose this trust monopoly,
have dGclared for such tariff revision
as would reduce the price of trust pro-
ductionS to a reasonable basis, but the
Republican leaders who control the po-
litical situation in congress declare the
tariff mast not be revised.
Those who have small incomes and
are therefore most injured by this state
Of affairs, must seek redress by voting
for a Democratic congress next year.
If the senate then, which will still be
Republican, refuses to pass a tariff
revision bill, the fight will be carried
into the presidential election Of 1908
As one-third of the senate will be
elected in 1906, it is possible, of course,
to reform that body at that time, but