The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-10-27
PEOPLE ROBBED
When They Pay the Republican Tariff Tax
on Their Clothing
THEY PAY TO THE MILLS
The Wholesale Manufacturers Have
to Pay More for Cloth, Innings
and Trimmings, and So They Are
Compelled to Raise the Price and
Cheaper the Quality.

Compelled to Raise the Price and
Cheaper the Quality.
One of the matters which the peo-
pie had in their mind when they
asked the govrnment to arrange the
tariff law so that. 1t would bear q
little less oppressively upon them was
clothing. Clothing costs far more
in the United States than 1t does in
any other part of the: world, though
this country produces most Of the
worlds cotton and a great part Of
the worlds wool. In spite OF the
fact that this nation sells abroad
vast quantities of both Of these prin-
cipal materials for clothes-making,
and that with 1t improved machin-
cry and intelligent labor 1t ought to
beat the world, the price Of clothes
Is higher here than 1t Is anywhere
else In the world; and the reason Is
that the tariff schedules are 50 high
as to tax all the people through every
article of clothing they buy, almost
entirely for the benefit of q few mill
owners who have done nothing to
earn this fat special privilege.
Congress did not lower the wool
It Is asserted, in It's de-
tense, that 1t did not raise them,
either, though until the full extent
of the sleight-of-hand work accom-
plished by Aldrich Is laid bare, no
body can be sure of that. Congress
did not lower the cotton schedules,
but it did raise them, and 1t raised
most heavily those covering articles
which most people buy because most
people can afford nothing better.
These things were done by the tariff
law which President Taft praises,
and for voting against which he has
chastised the insurgents Of the west.
These abstract facts are made
more interesting by a few figures.
Clothing has already increased In
price, and still further Increases are
promised for next spring. The suit
of clothes that you used to buy for
SIG is now $40; and the additional
81 represents your tribute to The
wool trust and the mill-owners,
though there was a large tribute In
the old price of SIG. The whole
sale manufacturers have to pay more
for cloth, Innings, and trimmings,
and so they declare they are COM
PEELED to raise prices-and, what is
worse, to cheaper the quality Of the
goods.
The consumer has this tempting
choice: He a pay $25 for the kind
of suit that he bought last fall for
$40, or he can pay the old price of
$40, and get for it the kind Of suit
that he could have got for SIC last
spring. .
A pattern Of goods that used to
be sold to the manufacturers at $1.76
per yard now costs him $40. 1t
takes three and a half yards to make
a suit so the added cost on this
item alone is $1.22. Adding III the
additional cost Of trimmings and
Innings it Is estimated that the In
crease In the making a suit out OF
that cloth is SAFE.
A dealer quoted by the Cincinnati
Enquirer says: 1.-THE retail store
keeper who has a run on suits that
he pays SIS for and sells at about
s22 If he wants to hold his :$22
price will have to take an inferior
quality Of suit. He will get a grade
that sold for about $12 previously
and which he used to sell In his
store at $1S."
Another dealer says that at Is
simply a hold-up behind the. tarif
fence" This man bought a lot OF
cloth for 81 a yeard that SELLS
the same goods from the same mill
for IS cents a yard in England.
The suits made of it are sold to the
retailer for $3.50 and to the ~earer
for $25. If the cloth could be bought
at the English price, IS cents, the
retailer. would ge: the suit for $40
and the wearer at $15.
And so it goes, throughout the
list, thanks to the tariff law which
the president Of the Unitsd States
is praising in the name Of Repro
lican party solidarity" What does
the wearer Of clothes, thus robbed