Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-06-05

declaring in favor of enough protection
to equalize labor cost of production At
home and abroad plus reasonable
profit
Government Insures Profits.
"The latter idea if enacted into law
constitutes the government into an i'll
Surance company for our manufactur-
ers, but for nobody elsa gross ana
indefensible species of. favoritism. If
the government is to. guarantee reas-
enable profit to manufacturers, why
should it not so the whole hog and
guarantee reasonable profit to farm
ers, mechanics, wholesale merchants,
retail merchants, drummers, profes.
sional men, editors preachers, teach
ers, peddlers, etc? What's sauce for
the goose should be sauce for the
gander. l cheerfully commend thai
old saw to those who desire the gov
eminent to turn insurance agent for
the manufacturers.
Il repeat that there is a maximum
| revenue-producing tariff rate on every
article. Up to that rate all rates are
revenue rates: above that they are
protective and approximate the prohi-
bitive. OF course rates below the max
imum revenue-producing rates are pro-
Elective pro tanto-that is. as far rs
| they go, but up to the maximum rev.
lenue-producing rate the dominant idea
is revenue and not above competitive
| rates. Under revenue tariff, if our
| inf a Rf ~ boil
prices too high, more foreign goods will
come in and the government will col
| lect more revenue while at the same
| time the consumer will buy his goods
at lower figure.
On the other hand rates above tbs
maximum revenue-producing rates, Il.
| though the dominant idea is prote..-
tion, produce some revenue, which di-
minishes precisely in the proportion as
the rates approximate the prohibitivs.
Not Affected To Some Extent.
Let 1T not be forgotten that a rate
which is protective or even approx
| mately prohibitive on one article IS
only a revenue rate on another. That
depends on many facts. For instance,
a rate which is simply a revenue rate
| on iron and steel might In practices
prove prohibitory on glass and crock
| cry, growing out of differences Ill
freight rates. insurance, breakage. etc
There Is no loss on steel and iro:i
from breakage. They may be brought
over in ballast, paying the lowest pos.
sible freight rate. Insurance would be
| low. On glass and crockery freighs
and insurance rates are higher: the
breakage is considerable, sometimes
| testified before the ways and means
committee that on one importation
which he remembered there was a loss
from breakage amounting to between
40 and 80 per cent of the value Divers
other instances might be given, but
these will suffice.
Though the Dingley specific rates
on lumber amount to only about IL per
cent when reduced to add valorehl
rates, the very small imports prove
that even those low rates are practi
| cally prOhibitive in practice and
| should therefore be cut TO revenue
basis, or, since timber is prime nee
essity of life. it should be placed M
the free list in answer to the demand
of the Denver democratic platform.
| THE conclusion is that through con
fusion of terms. many persons, some
of them holding high positions. imag
inc that they favor a protective tariff
when really they favor only revenue
tariff