Bisbee daily review., 1909-06-22
TARIFF TALKS

strong testimonial to the .en-
 trenched strength of the sugar trust
 in the senate was given a few days
 ago, when that body refused to elim.
 mate the Dutch standard of color
 test on importations. If that test
 had been cut out of the law it would have permitted the importation of
 light and dark brown sugars-cheap
 sugars. The provision requiring that
 all importations must be of certain
 color, dark red. when it is uneatable
 and unmarketable save to the trust.
 means that nothing can come in un- and the trust attends to the refining. The Aldrich bill proposes to in crease the tar;ff on razors from 55 to 100 per cent. This means doubling the price of razors to every purchas CT. No less an authority than the
 Iron Age says that this will effect ually shut out foreign competition, and thus return no revenue to the government. but that it will place the American market at the mercy of i the cutlery manufacturers, who now maintain one of the strongest trusts in the country. This trust is not
 only protected by patents on articles | and on machinery, by copyrights and trade agreements. but it asks abso-
 lute protection from competition in the home market. And the Aldrich bill gives it. The head of the Sim
 mons Hardware company of St. Louis who claims to have sold in his fifty | three years of business, more razors | than any man who ever lived in the United States, is quoted in the Con l gressional Record, as having said | that the rate of wages paid workmen in this country is very little more than is paid for the same kind of la
 bor in Germany and England. and
 ors or grind them properly in this
 country. America today manufact- | ures about 20 per cent of the razors
 used in the country. The Aldrich bill
 is intended to hand over the remain der of the business to the cutlery trust, and to do this it gives it the protection of 100 per cent duty when
 so high an authority as Edward c. Simmons of St. Louis asserts that there is very little difference between the rate of wages paid razor makers there and abroad. This raises the in teresting question of what is a req
 sonable profit for the razor manufact-
 urer. such as the republican plat. form guarantees him after it has made up the difference in wages
 The senate has refused to take the , tariff on lumber. No well informed
 republican can defend this tariH, and no wise one will attempt to do SO i. The republican idea of the tariH is that 1t should be high enough to pro tect American labor from the com 5 petition of low paid labor abroad and
 that there should also be included { reasonable profit to the manufactur , CT. This Is the platform definition
 or measure of the tariff. How doe F it work out in practice. The tarif n on lumber ought to insure the Amer Ii, ican workman a hgher wage thai the lumberworker across the border { Yet Theodore M. Knappen of the Ma
 ltional Forest Conservation leagu > submitted to congress extensive ts t bles which show that higher wage
 are now beng paid tn both the mill '' and the logging camps or Canao
 than in the United States. It fol lows, therefore, that the w0rkmel U here need no protection and if tn D manufacturer Is getting his labor fo
 less than his nearest competito abroad then in that fact alone lie n a reasonable profit for him. Why tariff? Here is the explanation-an L. 1t clearly shows the character of tn n work the republican congress is d ing against the public interests ? tarin operates to restrict the yolum
 of imported lumber and to increas
 it's price. If it is retained the valu
 of the stumpage holdings is enhance !, and the power of the lumbermen F. dictate prices is continued. Doe i. this not show in whose interest th
 the tarin is being mades-C. G.
 in Commoner.