The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1908-03-27
TARIFF ON WOODEN GOODS.
Where the United States Collects 81
the Trust Collects SIS.

There is no industry protected more
highly by the tarin than the wooden
manufacturer The Average rate on
all manufactured articles. OF which
wool Is the chief constituent. is 1890
per cent. which when the freight and
about doubles the average cost on Inn
ported wooden articles When the tar
IN tax on some wooden articles is con-
sidered, IL would seem that even our
Republican protectionist friends have
overshot the mark. For instance. on
long blankets the purchaser has TO pay
tariff OF 1854 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 cloth
ing. the tariff tax is l7455 per cent
That is the actual tariff tax paid on
imports OF the articles quoted for the
fiscal year ending June 80. 1906,
which 10 the last official report pub
lshed.
known as the wooden trust is the chief
recipient OF these tariff favors. for the
high duties on imported goods pre-
vent much from being purchased but
allow the trust TO add TO its profits
the amount of what similar imported
goods would pay. Thus. II yard of
cloth cost one dollar in England. the
tariff tax when II is imported here is
1896 making the cost here 1886.
without reckoning the freight and
other expenses, or the profit to the i'm
porter. The English manufacturer
must have made a good profit on that
yard OF cloth II probably cost him
so cents, so his profit was 20 cents
and our importer 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 ordinary profit would be
25 per cent. the same as the English
manufactures made, which should
bring the Wholesale selling price here
to 1925 a yard. But as the tariff tax
brings the cost of the foreign yard
Of cloth to 1896. our manufacturer
can add further profit of Sill a yard
to the price as the extra profit he can
charge. before the imported goods can
compete with him. To prevent this
foreign competition our manufactures
sells the homemade cloth just
enough cheaper than the foreign made
cloth can be sold for. SO the wooler
trust can charge s. a yard extra profi'
and still beat the foreign manufactur
er IL cents a yard.
II does not require an expert or
tariff plundering to discover that thu
American consumer not only pays the
tariff on the imported goods, but alsC
pays the trusts the tariff they charg'
in increased profit But this is no
the worst Of the tariff robbery. 70
where there is one yard of cloth. o
any other article. imported there ar
hundreds OF such of domestic manu-
facture consumed on which the trusts
and combines have collected their tar
In profit.
ne ldilH IoDDtls IL pei maps hioi
fully shown when Ii is considered tina
the total value OF all the wooden goods
imported for the fiscal year 1906 wa
s22 1859 on which a tariff tax wa
paid OF $40. GAS, or 5000 per cent
The cost value of wooden and worste'
goods manufactured in the United
States in 1905. is given in the United
States Statistical Abstract as 1907,
941,710 and the price at which these
goods were sold in consequence OF thu
tariff protection was approximate,
doubled SO whereas the United States
collected a little over twenty million
In tariff taxes the trust and othe
wooden manufacturers collected abou
s300,O00,000 extra profit in conse
quenoe OF tariff protection or SIS 70
every dollar collected by the govern
ment.
Is not this wooden schedule OF tn
tariff law a monument of plundering
and yet Republican congress stands
pat and refuses TO even consider re
vising such protection TO the trusts.