Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-12-24
UNJUST FROM THE FIRST.
December s, 1908.


Merely to Changed Conditions.
The fact that certain schedules are
too high is ascribed by Mr. Taft in his
speech of acceptance to changes in the
conditions of production since the
Dingley tariff was enacted. Unfortu-
nately he makes no specifications of
such changes. The truth is that most
of the Dingley schedules were Outra-
geously excessive In 1897 and have re-
manned so ever since, though the injus-
tice may be a little more or little less
now than then.
Let US look at a few schedules 1t is
admitted by all, including the tariff
beneficiaries, that iron and steel and
their immediate products can be made
in the United States cheaper than in
any other country. This was so in
1897 when the Dingley tariff was
framed, and manifestly no protection
was needed Yet the iron and steel in
terests then, as now, having tremen-
dous political influence, secured duties
ranging from 81 per ton on pig iron to
$50 per ton on certain steel products
and even 500 per ton in a few cases.
In the fiscal year ending June 80, 1907,
import duties on iron and steel and
their products averaged 1929 per cent.
But the tribute exacted by the steel
trust and its friendly competitors was
certainly much more than 80 per cent
for in computing the average rate on
goods imported those on which the
duty is so high as to be prohibitive, or
nearly so, have little or no effect on the
result. What a tax of more than 80
per cent means on the enormous out
put Of iron and steel products can be
imperfectIy imagined when we know
that, according to the United States
special census of manufactures in
1905, the rough products of steel works
and rolling mills were of the value Of
673,965,026 without considering the
further manufacture of this material
into nails, bolts, wire and other high
~ finished products. If this taxing Of
the people in figures that run into the
hundred millions on iron and steel
was robbery in 1907, it was no less so
In 1897.
In fact, owing to the lower scale Of
general prices in 1897 and the presence
Of many specific duties, the actual ad
valorem rates were higher than now
In the first fiscal year after the pas
sage of the Dingley act, 1889, the
average duty on iron and steel and their
products was 1853 per cent as COM
pared with 1929 per cent in 1867.
Let US look at the duties on wool and
its products. In the year 1867 cheap
wooden yarn, worth not more than 30
cents per pound, bore a tariff tax Of
the schedules Mr.. Taft would consider
too high, it being unlikely that the diff
ference In the cost Of production and
even a liberal reasonable profit''
would be equal to 143 per cent of the
entire cost and profit abroad. If so,
was the tax any more Just when the
Dingley act was passed? In the first
fiscal year under that act yarn of this
grade under then existing conditions
paid a tax of 1775S per cent. In like
manner the cheaper wooden and worst
ed cloths, which in 1907 paid 13497 per
cent, in 1889 paid S14037 per cent,
and all flannels for underwear We're
taxed 1854 per cent in the later pc
Rod and 1907 per cent in the earlier.
In speaking of schedules that are too
high perhaps Mr.. Taft has in mind the
duty of 98.63 per cent imposed on
crude mineral oil in 1907 for the pro
lection of the Standard Oil company,
which exports annually more than
billion gallons of oil and its products.
sending them to nearly every foreign
country in competition with the whole
world, but charges American consum-
ers more than foreigners. Yet if the
''oil joker in the Dingley tariff is
thief now 1t was none the less a thief
in 1897.
Perhaps Mr.. Taft has in mind the
borax duty of 5 cents per pound, under
which the boraX trust in 1906 was
charging Americans 7&4 cents per
pound for its product which sold for
cents in Europe. Yet American borax
needed no more protection in 1897 than
IN 1907.
4 candidate who has high praise for
the Dingley tariff, judging conditions
as they were in 1897, who shows no
live appreciation of the tariff graft
flched by the trusts to the amount Of
many hundred millions annually, can
not command the confidence OF citizens
who have an intelligent and lively IN
terest In the cause Of tariff reform.
JESSE F. ORION.