Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-07-09
THE WOMAN'S DOLLAR.
Why the Housewife Should Study
the Tariff.
EFFECT ON HER HOME LIFE.
Protection Makes Her Pay Double For
Her Household SuppIies-A Question
That Demands the Attention of the
GentIer Sex

1entIer Sex.
1.-THE following article by Edward H
Bailey, was published In the Johnstown
(Pa.) Democrat and was awarded the
prize for April by the tariff reform COM
mittee OF the Reform club This commit
tee offers a monthly prize OF SIS for the
best tariff reform article and the same
amount for the best tariff reform cartoon.
For particulars address the committee at
~ Broadway. New York
The average man is honest and gains
erage man is not safe spender He
knows that his wife can buy more for
q dollar than he can. She Is the gov
ernor Of the household. She buys all
the foodstuffs. She buys the stockings
and shoes and wearing apparel for the
big and the little In the family She
buys the furniture, the pictures, tbs
bric-a-brac, the flowers and the plants
and the hundred and one things that
go to make up the elegance and the
comfort of the home. 1t has ever been
thus because from the very beginning
she has manifested a higher conception
of the art of spending the dollar than
the man.
! Yet with all her skill in buying the
necessities of life the average woman
does not seem to realize that sordid
man has given her very serious
handicap in the protective tariff. Were
1T not for the tariff she could buy for
80 cents what now she must pay 81
for. Every time she goes to the store
IF VII i.1cf
much as she can for a dollar there is
a concealed thief who filches 30 cents
of the hundred she spends. The so
cents does not go to the storekeeper.
BE Is the forced collector of 1t. In the
process of final settlement with the
tariff protected trust manufacturer the
storekeeper pays the 30 cents over to
him.
So we would say to the housewife,
who Is the most economical spender In
the world, that she is vastly concerned
In the tariff question. We fancy that
IL she should study the tariff as she
studies the markets she would be
for It is just as certain as the fixed
stars that she Is a constant victim of
the tariff A part Of every penny she
spends goes as tribute to some trust.
Would it not be the part Of wisdom
for the woman with the dollar of the
man to give a share Of her attention
Ito the effect the tariff has on her
daily life? 1t is very refreshing to
know that many noble women have
given their attention to the question,
with the result that they have come to
regard the tariff as the thief that this
paper always has described 1t to be
and still insists that 1t is. The late
Susan B. Anthony, admittedly one OF
the greatest women of modern times,
scathingly arraigned the tariff as a
robber, and a very large number Of
her disciples are carrying on the cru
sade she so ably began. There are
living today many Of the admirers OF
M. Cougar, two Of the noblest women
In the world, who, while contending
for the rights Of women as citizens,
are not forgetting to show that the
tariff is q curse to the race. Another
notable example of woman's devotion
to a great cause Is Ella Wheeler VIII
cox, poet and philosopher, who for
many years has assailed the tariff with
all the force of her mind. The list Of
such splendid, thoughtful women might
be multiplied, but 1t Is not necessary
in this article. 1t Is enough to know
that the tariff question is a growing
one In the ranks of the gentler sex.
Since 1t concerns them so deeply there
are abundant reasons why the tariff
should attract their attention.