The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-19

| am asked TO write under one of the
two heads. How the tariff affects my
business or why l favor tariff re-
ductiOn."
AS l am not selfish enough to ask for
lower tariff duties solely on my own
account. or foolish enough to imagine
that the tariff law will be changed for
my especial benefit. / will write few
words under both heads.
My business is injUriously affected by
the tariff The duties on hides, leather
thread machinery, coal and building
materials increase the cost of making
shoes in this country an average o.
something like 10 cents pair. or $50,
000,0 900 a year for the entire country.
OF course. we manufacturers do not
finally pay all of this tariff tax on foot
wear We collect fully nine-tenths of
it from those who wear shoes. But we
cannot collect the tax on shoes sold for
export. This comes out of our own
pockets This tax. by forcing us to pay
10 per cent more for leather than is
paid by our foreign competitors in
creases the cost of making shoes in this
country about per cent, and thus
greatly handicaps us in foreign mar
kets. With free leather and other ma
terials and supplies we would, perhaps
soon be exporting 500. 900, coo worth OF
shoes year. lnSIeau OF tHe Si-OUoouU VI
SIS. 900, 600 worth now exported.
It's, then, mainly in the export bust
ness that the tariff shoe pinches us
manufactures 1t pinches us very
much also because of the fewer pairs
Of shoes worn by an overtaxed people.
II as | believe tarif-trust taxes in
crease the cost of living by l per cent
il is probable that these taxes diminish
the number of shoes worn about 10 pei
cent.
favor tariff reduction, then, both for
selfish and for humanitarian reasons
By stopping the tariff graft of the pro-
tected trusts-the greatest of all graft
| would increase the purchasing power
of the wage and salary earners' dollar
and thus virtually increase wages IL
per cent. | am not certain that. mad
the trusts been curbed by the removal
of the unnecessary tariff duties in 1906
or 1905, we would not have had the Sc
we're industrial depression through
which we are now passing. | nave
never been a believer in the now eX-
plotted theory that a nation could tax
itself into prosperity. Protection ano
prosperity are not in my vocabulary
synonymous words. To me protection,
as we know it. means unnecessary ano
unjust taxation, and this means ire
0uent PERIODS OF. DuSlucSS ucpiCosioii
reduced wages, idle working men, adj
versity, disease and crime, such as we
are now. experiencing
L lfave no faith in the Republican
tariff expert committee plan of revis-
ing the tariff. In my opinion. 1t is q
political maneuyer to hoodwink the
people and tide the Republicans over
the presidential election. 1t is partly
scheme to have the tariff experts in
the various departments provide cam
paign material for the high tariff party
These experts are now compiling sta
tistics of cost of production in different
countries and of export taxes and
bounties levied by foreign countries on
goods going abroad. We may be GER
tain that if any material is found that
will a.d the protectionists and stand.
patters, il will be put into the hands o.
all Republican speakers next fall. Other
material will be kept under cover.
The New York Journal of Commerce
of May 30 made an even more serious
charge against the tariff revision plans
of the senate and house committees. II
said that these plans We're merely in
tended as a basis for political capital.
and that the whole tariff investigation