Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-03-24
Tariff on wooden Goods.


highly by the tariff than the wooden
manufacturer. The average rate on all
manufactured articles, of which wool
is the chief constituent, is $3.50 per
cent, which when the freight and other
charges are added to the duty about
doubles the average cost on imported
wooden articles. When the tariff tax
on the wooden articles is considered,
it would seem that even our Republi-
can protectionist friends have over
shot the mark For instance, on long
blankets the purchaser has to pay a
tariff tax of 1851 per cent; on dress
goods 1854 per cent on knit fabrics
1873 per cent; on cloth 1868 per cent,
and even on shoddy, which is largely
used here for cheap clothing, the tariff
tax is 174.55 per cent. That is the
actual tariff tax paid on imports of the
articles quoted for the fiscal year end
Ing June 80, 1906, which is the last
official report published.
The American Wooden Company,
huOh IL dS LIE NOOlCA luSl, ID IAC NhAOA
recipient of these tariff favors, for the
high duties on imported goods prevent
much from being purchased but allow
the Trust to add to its profits the
amount of what similar imported goods
would pay Thus If yard of cloth
cost one dollar in England the tariff
tax when it Is imported here is $1.38,
making the cost here $3.50 without
reckoning the freight and other ex-
penses or the profit to the importer.
The English manufacturer must have
made q good profit on that yard OF
cloth. 1t probably cost him 50 cents,
so his profit was 20 cents and our i'm
porter paid 81 and then had to pay the
cost of importing and the tariff tax. A
similar yard of cloth manufactured
here would cost about 81 and the ordi-
nary profit would be % per cent the
same as the English manufactures
made, which should bring the wholesale
selling price here to $1.25 yard. But
as the tariff tax brings the cost of the
foreign yard of cloth to $2.36, our man
ufacturer can add a further profit of
Sill yard to the price as the extra
profit he can charge, before the i'm
ported goods can compete with him.
To prevent this foreign competition
our manufacturer sells the homemade
cloth just enough cheaper than The for
eign-made cloth can be sold for. So the
Wooden Trust can charge 81 a yard
extra profit and still beat the foreign
manufacturer II cents a yard.
1t does not require any expert on
tariff plundering to discover that the
American consumer not only pays the
tariff tax Oh the imported goods, but
also pays the trusts the tariff they
charge in increased profit. But this is
not the worst of the tariff robbery, for
where there is one yard Of cloth, or
any other article, imported there are
hundreds of such, Of domestic manu-
facture consumed, on which the trusts
and combines have collected their tar
iff profit.
This tariff robbery is perhaps more
fully shown when 1t is considered thk
the total value of all the wooden goods
imported for the fiscal year 1906 was
SO, 353,591, on which a tariff tax was
paid of $20,1S5,04S, or 90.30 per cent.
The cost value of wooden and worsted
goods manufactured in the United
States in 1906 is given in the United
States Statistical Abstract as $780,
941,710 and the price at which these
goods were sold in consequence of the
tariff protection was approximately
doubled. SO whereas the United States
collected little over twenty million
in tariff taxes the trust and other wool
en- manufacturers collected about $780,
100000 extra profit in consequence of
tariff protection or SIS for every dollar
collected by the government.
Is not this wooden schedule Of the
tariff law a monument of plundering
and yet Republican Congress stands
pat and refuses to even consider revis-
ing such protection to the trusts.