The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1908-12-30
TOM WATSON TELLS HOW THE
PEOPLE ARE ROBBED
BY High Protective TariY--A Clear
Expose OF the Ubiquitous System.


dress. reports him as stating that the
feoreign spinners clear a profit OF
$s.0OO,OOO on the American cotton
they annually purchase from us.
The amount is rather more than
nine million dollars. Brother Poe
To be frank with you, it is nine
hundred million dollars.
The foreigner bought during the
year named, upwards Of nine million
bales Of American cotton, paying us
not quite Ave hundred million dollars
for 1t. He sold the manufactured
products-cioth and "sich"-for
fourteen hundred million dollars.
Five hundred from fourteen hum
dred leaves nine hundred.
Tidy sum to lose every year-this
| 5000. 900. 900!
When Is the cotton grower to wake
up and watch the way his Congress.
man votes?
When is the farmer going to learn
how to compel his representatives to
vote for laws that will benent the
farmer?
The official record reveals the aw-
full fact that the steel trust, alone
clears more money. every year, than
the 100000 agriculturists clear in
ten years.
Why because the steel trust gets
congress to pass laws that benefit the
trust. How does congressional legis-
lation enable the steel trust to earn
larger profits in one year than all
the farmers can earn in ten?
BY putting the license-fee of the
foreigner who seeks to sell in our
market so high that he cannot af-
ford to pay it. The tariff duty which
the foreigner has to pay at the Gus
tom house, before he can offer his
goods for sale in our country, is the
same as a license fee paid for the
privilege to sell.
suppose foreigner has to pay
four dollars tariff duty on a suit of
clothes which sells in Europe for six
dollars. The four dollars must be
added to the six, and we Americans
must pay ten dollars for the suit.
The foreigner cannot afford to sell it
to US for less.
That being so. the American
manufacturer can put a ten-dollar
price on his six dollar suit of clothes
also. The foreigner cannot sell for
less than ten, without losing money.
whereas the American manufacturer
can offer his suit at $3.50, cut the
foreigner out Of the trade, and still,
pocket $3.50 more than the suit OF
clothes is worth.
When the foreigner can afford TO
bring his goods into our market the
Government gets the tarifr duties.
When the foreigner cannot afford
to sell In our amrket, the American
manufacturer has a monopoly,
charges extortionate prices. and the
Government gets nothing.
Thus the tariff keeps competition
out. breeds the trust and pillages
the millions who must buy the 5000
; articles whose prices are artificially
lacked up and kept up by congress-
ional legislation.
The prodigal expenditures of Con-
L <hA ~
equally guilty Of sinful waste-have
Increased the appropriations until
the per capita cost Of running the
Federal Government is about $12
per annum. To the average family
that means a yearly Federal tax OF
$50.
But you never see any Federal tax
collector, do you? You see one every
time you buy plug Of tobacco, every
time you settle store account, every
time you purchase one Of the hun
dreds of articles necessary to home
) and farm.
You bewail your fate. and say
that times are hard and the cost
Of living increased"
What have you done to make
times better?
Voted the Republican ticket, and
got half-a-dozen little packages OF
garden seed and copy of a speech
that your Congressman did not de-
liver?
Or did you vote the Democratic
ticket, and get six small envelopes
containing garden seed and a copy of
a speech your Congressman made on
one side Of question, when the
record shows that he voted on the
other?
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