The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1909-04-15

IN the llIsl place IL Snoulu De IT,
membered that the American producer
can fix his prices so that they shall
be equal to the cost OF production
abroad, plus the tariff. No one can
undersell him at that price. II the
tariff is LARGER than the difference
u the cost of production at home
and abroad, he can fix his price at
the foreign cost, plus the tariff, and
tho the total is more than his own
cost of production, he can sell his
goods at that price without fear of
competition, and pocket the difference
as pure unearned profit. in addition
to the usual profit which is already
figured into the cost OF production.
In other words, the American manu-
facturer gets a graft" equal to the
amount by which the tariff is larger
than the difference in the cost of
production at home and abroad. And
the same as in the case where the
tariff was fair, the man who buys the
goods has to pay the difference. SO
that in every case where the tariff
is higher than the difference in the
cost of production the American buy
err pays a tax, not for the benefit
OF the government, which gets not
cent Of this money nor for the benefit
OF the workmen. for their wages are
covered by the smaller tariff, but for
the benefit of the already rich
manufacturer.
The manufacturers try TO convince
the people that by raising the tariff
in a case of that kind. the workmen
employed in their plants get higher
wages. But this is not true. The
wages which are paid in any line of
employment are fixed by the supply
of labor, the amount Of skill required
in the work. and the dangers OF the
work II the wages in any given
line fall lower than are paid for equi-
valent work In other industries, the
workmen will leave it and so into
the other industry. If the wages are
higher than are paid for similar work
In other lines, workmen will leave
those other lines, till there is such
a demand for work in the highly paid
line that the employers will reduce
the wages. This process takes some
little time, but It is sure to work In
the end, and the statement that the
wages in any particular industry VIII
be reduced in case the tariff on the
articles produced by it is reduced Is
intended to deceive. The only thing
that can happen by reducing the tariff
on any single product would be to
put the manufacturer out OF business
IL it forced the price so low that he
cannot produce at a profit And Their
is not the slightest danger of this
being done by a Republican Con-
gress. But when a manufacturer
argues that low tariff will drive
him out OF business he Is talking
sense whether he is telling the truth
or not. When he tells you ii will
force him TO reduce wages he Is try
ing to confuse you over the difference
I'm the effect OF free trade in general
and the effect of low tariff on
single article. Remember that the
manufacturer always has a chance
TO make profit out Of high tariff
and that the buyers have TO pay this
profit The wages have to be the
market price. and no tariff can force
them either up or down so far as
any one industry is concerned
We thus see that every American
producer has an interest in having
the tariff made as high as possible.
The higher 1t is, the larger profit he
can extract from US who have TO
buy from him. He knows this, and
stretches every nerve to get a good,
high tariff. Among other things he
does, he tries TO make his employees
believe that their wages will increase
with a higher tariff on the goods
they make, and sometimes he even
goes so far as to divide up part of
the graft with them for a few months
after he gets the tariff increase he
is after. But it never lasts long. He
always holds the whole profit-which
you and pay-sooner or later.
This is the first difficulty that Con-
gress meets in fixing the tariff,
then-that the real information as to
the cost of production at home is In
the hands OF men who find 1t to their
interest to lie about it. All kinds OF
false statistics are presented to Con-
gressmen and all kind of lies told,
and unless they appoint detectives
to get the facts for them, they really
go to work with only a mass of lies
for the basis of their law. The same
thing is true of the facts about the
II. nj or