The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-07-12
FIR INK Z. HOWE, Editor and Publishs
COST OF CLOTHES

One of the effects of the new tariff
bill will be to increase the price of
clothes, especially mems and boys
wool suits. This class of clothing
was increased in price by the Ding
Icy bill and ls urw destined to so still
Lfgher If the tariff bill becomes a :aN
in he form in which it came from the
Senate.
The National Association of Cloth
iers through special committee ap'
pointed June 80 has addressed menl-
orial to congress with reference to the
pending tariff bill, which the associa-
ton contends has resulted In an I'M
just advance in the prices OF cloths
used in making clothing Among
other things the memorialists assert
that the advance prices on worsIeds
which has been announced following
the steady deterioration of fabri IS in
weight and quality which resulted
from the operations of the Dingley
bill, would add to the retail price ap-
proximately $3.50 on a $40 suit OF
clothes, SO on a SIS suit and So on a
$40 suit, or from 20 per cent to 25
per cent to the cost of the clothing to
the wearer. They say also:
THE aggregate burden of the in.
creased cost of men and boys cloth
| ing to the American people under the
present advance alone will be 1920.
100000 for the year 1910, which is
twice the value of the annual wool
clip. Although the bill has not yet
actually become law yet 1t is clear.
ly seen how 1t will operate and the
foregoing demonstrates the results al
ready apparent to the actual manufac
turers of clothing"
1t is probable that this association
committee has told the story fully "a
strong as the facts warrant and that
the results will not be quite as bad az
anticipated, yet it is evident that the
new tariff bill is made up to the adj
vantage of protected interests that
uttu lOl OliC nan vi lHC BlONtCllOh
that they now get while the consumer
will pay more for the ordinary neces-
stiles of life.
The people of the United States are
just as much believers in protection
as ever they were. In the present
condition of trade and industrial riv-
airy it would be suicide and ruin for
this country to even attempt to ap-
proach anything like a free trade ba-
sis. England through her pig-headed
obstinacy in sticking to free trade
against the advice of ner greatest
statesman, Joseph Chamberlain, is
driving her people toward pauperism
at an appalling rate. Protectionist
Germany and France during the past
decade have outstripped England in
many lines of manufacturing and in
They are still gaining and england is
just as steadily falling behind, and
will until she changes her policy.
In this country the question is not
protection but the degree of protec-
ton. Three fourths of our people are
as firmly bound to protection as they
are to religious freedom but they have
not reached the stage where they
will submit tamely to the tariff re-
vision which Senator Aldrich and the
agents of the protected interests are
examining down the throat of the
country. If the Democratic party
could offer anything except chaos,
foolish extremes and sure disaster it
would have ,ne greatest opportunity
in its history. AS it is, the only hope
of the rank and file of the people is
that the progressive, earnest, middle
class citizens of both parties
may get together in the course of time
and send some men to Congress and
especially to the Senate who are not
50 closely affiliated with the interests
of the money getters.
Aldrich and his associates are not
rascals or thieves. Simply through
association and training they have
come to believe that the interests of
the country are wholly dependent on
the great combinations of capital,
the trusts, the mergers, and the mon
opolies. But new generation has
arisen. The time has come when
the rights of the average citizen need
protection more than the rights of
capital. Enterprises and combina-
tions that cannot exist and at the
same time give the public square
deal have no rignt to exist at all and
should be supplanted by those which
can. 1t is time that Aldrich and his
crowd be sent to the barn.