The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-25

place of ton of pig iron in making
| steel We reduced steel rails from
| $3.50 to $3.50, and steel billets and
| blacksmith's bar iron from $S to $3.75,
| and so on through the entire iron and
| steel schedule, except in structural
| iron. where we reduced the rate from
SO ton to $S ton.
Print Paper Reductions and Free
Pulp.
We reduced the rate On printing
paper from Sc to 1915, and put pulp
| on the free list.
We took the tariff off. hides, and
| reduced the tariff on boots and shoes
from 25 per cent to 10 per cent, and
upon sole leather from 20 per cent
to per cent and on upper leather
from 20 per cent to Z " per cent, and
SO on through ali the feathers.
The highest percentages of in
crease were upon champagnes and
wines and brandies, and silks and
laces
We reduced sawed lumber from So
a thousand to $1.25 a thousand; lum-
So, planed or finished, S2.37A; pIaned
or finished on four sides, from "a to
$2.75.
In the. sugar schedule there was a
dlHerentlal of 12c, pound allowed
to the runners for loss in refining We
made this &c. which was only change
made in the sugar schedule. The sugar
schedule was made for the protection
or the cane sugar and beet sugar. In
the year 1895 we made As million pounds
of beet sugar. In the year 1908 we made
943 million pounds of cane sugar; and
IN the same year we brought from
Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines
1855 million pounds of cane sugar, and
we imported from other countries 33
hundred million pounds We use more
than one-flfth of the sugar produced
in the world, and we can buy more
granulated sugar for a dollar in any
town in Kansas than can be bought
for dollar in any civilized country in
the world If the beet suSar industry
grows at the same rate that it has
for the last ten years, by another ten
years We will nearly supply ourselves.
The complaint that brown sugar can
not come in because of the tariff, is
not true, for the 773 million pounds of
cane sugar is our home product, sold
on the open market to anybody who
will buy, either brown or refined. and
the 1855 million pounds from Porto
Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines, is
all brown sugar that comes in free
1 have not time to go through the
entire bill, but have given you enough
to justify my statement that it was a
great revision.
Too Low ON Iron Ore.
1 have said that possibly we made
the tariff a little too low in some
places. Since We reduced iron ore from
40c a ton to 15c a million tons of ore
have been contracted in Spain to be
delivered in the United States. The
freight and duty is 221ac per ton. The
freight alone on iron ore from Michi-
gan to Philadelphia is Csc a ton and
there are 10000 voters who are miners
in the Independent ore mines of Michi-
gan. That ore cannot be sold in COM
petition with the Spanish ore, unless
there is a reduction of wages or a re-
duction on ore in the ground.
Canada Profits From Lumber Schedule
In the lumber schedule. the house
bill was for $1.0O a thousand. the
senate bill was for $3.50, and the con-
ference committee made it $1.25.
Within a week after the bill passed
the price of rough lumber at the Can
ada mills went up 75c a thousand
They get the money and we lose the
revenue.
On print paper in the house we re-
duced the rate from $500 a ton to
$500 a ton and put pulp on the free
list, and before our bill got to the SEN
ate for consideration on this subject
the province of Ontario prohibited the
export of pulp wood and pulp, and
shortly after the province of Quebec
did the same thing. These two prov
inces have practically all the spruce
wood in Canada, out of which pulp
can be made without chemical bleach
ing At the time the Dingley law
passed, wood for pulp was sold at
mills; last year it was $1O.50 cord.
The purpose of the Canadians was to
force our mills to go over there to
make paper, or our people to go there
and buy paper.
South America Raised Price on Hides. !
We took the tariff off hides. which
was 5 per cent upon the hides weigh
ing over 25 pounds, and these came
nearly all from South America. With
IN 2 week after our bill passed the
price of hides had gone UP >16 per
cent IN South America They get the
money and we lose the revenue. /
In Merino wool fleeces the outside fleece
rs very black and greasy. Nearly all the
OIL IN fleeces is in the outside halfinch, so
Wool-dealers split the fleeces, because the
outside shrinks in securing more than the
inside part. The shrinkage is about 70
per cent of the weight, so that the dealer
who buys the raw wool In London brings
IL mere and scours it, buys a hundred
pounds of raw wool and has thirty pounds
annually. We reduced the rate on this
outside split as fleece because it shrinks
a Scotchman last Thursday, who said: II
see you reduced the tariff on tops l
said: Yes, have you seen the bill?''' and
had letters from my friends in Scotland. |
They tell me they are getting a penny a |
pound more for their black faced wool
since America reduced the tariff So /
they get the money, and we lose the |
revenue.
Real Club in Hands of Our Enemies. !
l met friend, who said that perhaps
we did all right. but he thought it would
be better for all the people If there was
no tariff on anything. and the revenue
was raised in some other way Theoreti-
cally. this might possibly be true, if we
could legislate for all the world so that /
they would do the same thing I have
written more at length than / intended
when 1 began this letter and the point /
l wish to make is that the real club in .
the hands of our enemies Is the fact that |
friends acn11aint themselves
with the bill or with the practical opera |
tion of it.
The reductions in the bill affect more |
than five thousand millions of dollars |
worth of the annual consumption of nee !
essaries in the United States, and yet. not /
workman has lost an hour of wages by |
it. not a cent has been lost from the !
price of any farm product by it. not a |
sinele xzasre earnss. % millions of :