The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-04-16
FOR TIE TRUSTS
The Payne-AIdrich Tariff Bill a
 Sham and a Fraud
NO RELIEF FOR THE PEOPLE

NO nEIiCT run TIE EOI GG The "Friends of the Tariff, Make a Bill
 For the Favored Few-Most of the
 Tariff Hogs Taken Care Of-The Re-
 duetion of Duties on Steel Trust
 Products Will Not Disturb the Pro-
 lection of the Trust.
 The three parties most interested in the tariff are producers, consumers and the government. Producers may be divided into protected and unpro- tected interests.
 The protected producers include to- day a comparatively small percentage of our manufacturers, the owners of mines and timber lands and a very small percentage of farmers-mainly those raising sugar cane, sugar beets, barley and sheep.
 The unprotected producers include about 95 per cent Cby value of prod ucts) of our farmers, about S5 per cent of our manufacturers and virtually all of our wage and salary workers, pro fessional men, merchants and trans porters.
 The consumers include every man, woman and child inside of our nation al borders.
 As usual, when tariff bills are being made, the consuming class, those who pay the tariff taxes and who therefore are most vitally interested, were not consulted by the framers of the Payne bill. The two or three men who ap- peared before the ways and means committee in the interest of the neg Elected and forgotten consumer were treated with ignominy and contempt. The committee had no time to waste on those who did not appear to repre- sent special and selfish interests. Raises Cost of Living. The Payne-Aldrich bill will raise rather than lower the cost of living. Under it the breakfast, dinner and SUD- per tables will be taxed even more heavily than they now are. Under it and partly because of it the cost of living measured in gold dollars) will continue to rise in the next decade as rapidly as it has risen in the one just ended.
 There are many s.jokers'' in the Payne Aldrich bill. Nearly all have been put there for purpose-to insidiously raise Etarif duties. It is reasonably certain that if the Payne-Aldrich bill in its present form becomes law not only Twill the percentage of goods Cby vaiue) imported free. be diminished, but the average rate of duty on dutiable inn ports will be higher than it is at present. Consumers who asked for tariff reduction bread will be given tariff enhanced stones-that is, hand ed lemon," as we would now render 1t <: z s,-.si S s : ! Consumers should not, however, ex- pect much from the tariff revision now under way. It was not undertaken at their behest. Their voice has never been heard at Washington since the civil war. It was undertaken because it was demanded by the unprotected or no longer protected manufacturers. Thus the boot and shoe makers, not being in a trust and therefore receiv- ing little or no benefit from the duties on shoes, were beseeching congress for llfree hides, free leather and free coal. Manufacturers of implements, machin- cry and tools, who were benefited less than injured by duties on iron, steel, lumber and coal, were asking for re duced or no duties on these raw mate rials and supplies. Newspaper publish CTS were asking for free wood pulp and paper. The Steel and Iron Cuts. Most relief is expected from reduced duties on iron and steel. The country
 has heard much of the "5O per cent'' cut in the duties on steel. It has seen
 the prices of some kinds of steel prod ucts cut $6 or $S ton. Putting these two facts together, it imagines that we are in future to have cheap steel as
 result of lower duties. There is un- doubtedly connection between these
 two facts, but it is not where most people think it is. Steel prices have been reduced for effect on Washington l-that is,z to prevent radical tariff re- duction that might hurt and to save as
 much as possible of the present duties. In reducing, prices so .ostentatiously
 the United States Steel corporation
 would have the country. believe that
 prices are reduced because of the pro posed reductions; in steel duties. It is
 also part of the game that the 'einde-
 pendent" steel manufacturers are to
 make a loud outcry, to reduce wages
 and to claim that they will be ruined
 if the proposed reductions; are made.
 If necessary, the steel corporation will
 reduce wages. and perhaps pass it's
 quarterly dividend at it's meeting on
 the last Tuesday in April. All kinds Of
 fits will be thrown to prevent drastic
 cuts in steel duties
 l That the proposed cuts are. not dras-
 tic, except possibly the 50 per cent cut 1 in the duties on steel rails Cfrom ST S4