Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1909-08-26
WHY SHOESARE dear The SCH|VELY stunt
PROTECTION COMES HIGH, but
We have To have IT.
One Result of the PAYNE -AldriCh Bill!
Will Be to Increase the Price of
Shoes from rs to so Cents d
Pair. The Duty on Hides Is Clear
Steal.

Senator Scott of West Virginia
certainly exemplfies admirably the
general senatorial attitude toward
the tariff He sharply denied not
long ago that "West Virginia pro-
duces millionaires. People who
are at all familiar with the details
of the trade in lumber and coal have
been greatly deceived If the advance
in price of these products within the
past fifteen years has not brought
10 Senator Scott, personally and in
divdually, profit amounting to at
least more than $1,OO0,OO0 each.
Within fifteen years the prices
upon various grades of manufactured
lumber have advanced from. 60 to
10 per cent. That is to say, the
average price of manufactured lum-
ber has nearly doubled in fifteen
years How much do lumber-pro-
ducers want? The demand for a
continuation of any duty whatever
is simply an economic outrage. 1t is
hard as yet for the common run of
folks to understand that they pay
these indirect taxes. | should think,
however, that increased rents, due
largely to the great increase in cost
of building, would drive this fact
through the intelligence of most peo
pie after a while.
Possibly an item of taxation which
may be more directly appreciated by
the popular mind is the duty on
hides from which heavy snOe leath-
er and sole leather are made Here
also the demand for duty is slmp-
ly the cry of greed. | quote from a
responsible journal of the hide and
leather trade the statement that
packer hides are from 3 to ) cents
Il pound dearer than at this time
last year. and that certain other
hides "are cents a pound higher.
The general priceist of hides is in
many details higher than was ever
known before. Yet the 10 per cent
duty condemned by Blaine and
struck out by the house was restored
by the senate. This situation in the
market for raw material for leather
is reflected in the increase in the
price of shoes, and will eventually
be conveyed to the popular mind
thereby.
From the same periodical, which
is accurate and careful in it's mar
ket reports, comes the statement that
manufacturers have raised the price
of many grades of shoes 20 cents Il
pair" The public may as well sit
up and take notice that by the time
this advance is transferred to them
individually it will mean paying
from 25 to so cents pair more for
shoes, this, too, on top of an aver
age increase of from 80 to 70 cents
a pair which has taken place during
the past few years. | know enough
of shoe-retailing to know that the re-
tail dealer can not be made the scape-
goat, as has been attempted recent
ly in the senate. The percentage of
profit is small and failures have
been numerous in the refill shoe
trade. There was recent remark
able instance right here in New
York in a failure which in volume
of liabilities made it, so far as my
information extends, the greatest
that ever occurred in the retail shoe
trade
Personally, | have always been a
Republican from the ground up and
l believe in the protective principle
so far as it benefits the general pub
lie. But here are two items relat-
ing to two of the greatest primal
necessities, clothing and shelter, in
which the demand for duty is SIM
ply a demand that the public be taxed
still higher to swell the profits on
materials which have already vastly
advanced in price and which are
yielding enormous profits to the great
industrial and commercial combina-
tions which control them. Walter C.
Taylor, in the New York World.