The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-06-05
AN UNMlTiGATED HUMBUG.

The charlatanry of the author OF
the Aldrich tariff bill betrays itself in
nothing so much as in the schedule
of breadstuffs Other features of the
bill are ubiquitous and fraudulent in the
last degree, as witness the duty on
refined sugar for the sole benefit of
the most rapacious trust that was
ever formed to despoil the American
people, as well as the duties of 100
per cent on wooden clothing and
b blankets to encourage smuggling and
authorizations in manufactures. But
i the schedule of duties on agricultural
q products is an unmitigated humbug.
4 The bill raises the existing duty Of
( 25 cents a bushel on wheat to 30
4 cents; on oats from Is to 20 cents; on
i rye from 10 to 20 cents; on Indian
Z corn Is to 20 cents, and on buck
D wheat from Is to 20 cents bushel
If there is valid reason for this
I increase of duties it is best known
i to Chairman Aldrich, who has prob
1 ably communicated the secret to his
j associates on the committee Of
4 finance.
No man has been able to explain
why any duties at all should be put
on corn and rye and buckwheat,
whether for protection or revenue,
much less why the. duties are in
creased in this bill. :.~
Referring to the returns of trade,
it is, seen that the total importations
of corn last year amounted to 10000
bushels; or rye to II bushels, on
which was collected a revenue sof
$17O, and of buckwheat of 27,510
bushels, yielding revenue of $4,126.
In the whole schedule the only i'm
portations of any Importance consist
Of macaroni, vermicelli and like prep
arations from Italy. OF the total i'm
ports of breadstuffs for the year these
amounted in value to $3,999,936 and
yielded a revenue of $1,450,113. All
the rest produced a revenue of $751;
998, /
The duty of upward of 36 per cent
on the macaroni imported by our
Italian immigrants is brutal enough.
But if the duty on the small quantity
of wheat imported from Canada by the
millers of Minneapolis has tendency
to promote the present Chicago spec
ulation and raise the price of bread,
1t would deserve to be universally de-
nounced for it's wickedness: But it
it's absurdity as measure of protec-
ton.
When senator, and an extreme
protec tionist at that, spoke the other
day Of the folly of advancing duties
on wheat, corn, rye, barley and buck.
wheat, Chairman Aldrich arose and
asked with the utmost gravity wheth-
er he was opposed to protection to
our agricultural products" The only
answer was that the lumber and coal
Of West Virginia are entitled to the
same protection
ST. Neither question nor answer of this
brace of protectionist statesmen, sub
tie as was their latent humor, ap.
pears to have enlivened the proceed.
1ngs of the senate, as they were not
followed in the Congressional Record
{ by the parenthetic (1aughter'') with
which good thing is usually greeted
by that solemn body.
s It is probable that Chairman Aldrich
takes tEIe his schedule Of duties on bread
stuffs quite seriously and that he
really imagines he is persuading the
farmers Of Kansas. Iowa and Mime.
s# sofa he is protecting their productions
Of wheat, corn and rye while piling
up taxes on their lumber, coal, plows.
B. furniture, carpets, wooden clothing and
nearly all the. other commodities thew
purchase. Co., X, E. 5.sS y e ! =
He may also: desire to show the
western farmers how much more care
ful Al guardian Of their interests is
4 he than such rank free traders" an
Deliver cummtns. Ia Toilette. Bev--
8serridge, Bristow and Nelson. . y 81 I:
But whether he sincerely conceives
~ that he Il is protecting the farmers with
N his duties on breadstuffs or believes
rat % ding them once more, ii
either case IS It not rather ridiculous
That TIE author of tarin Bill 81