The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1910-07-23
THE PRICE YOU PAY AND THE
PRICE YOU GET.


don't hear anybody complain of the
price he Is getting. Here is an i'm
portant point the free trader misses
in his tariff cerebrations. Nearly all
consumers are producers Also the
antitrust man overlooks the fact that
labor combines to raise the price of
wages. and farmers combine to raise
the price of their products. Even
doctors have fixed a scale of prices,
and retail merchants associations
put ban on cut rates.
Now, while we would be glad to
do anything reasonable to reduce
the cost of things, none of us are
willing to begin cutting our own
products. Where shall we begin?
The free trader, or tariff for rev.
enue only man declares that the
tariff is responsible for the high
prices we are paying. II so. 1t goes
without saying that the tariff also is
responsible for the high prices We
are getting. Nicht wahr? Yet, the
tariff for revenue only man proposes
to cut out all the schedules of the
Payne bill regardless of any oonsid-
eratons other than thoee of reduc-
ing the cost to the consumer and
raising enough revenue to run the
government. as ii was run prior TO
1860.
Is there no alternative opposed to
lfhfc NJ that Of
high tariff? Let us see. Those, who
declare the Republican party never
ihas enacted a fair tariff law, we pre-
sumo. will not insist that the bill.
which Grover Cleveland refused to
sign, was a perfect specimen of a ma
tional revenue measure. So. we will
lagree with President Taft that
neither party has ever yet evolved
tariff law that either was fair or ex-
actly honest. They have all been
framed on Information furnished by
those, who expect to benefit by the
schedules. The explanation of this is
simple: only those, whose business Is
affected by the tariff schedule under
consideration. know anything about
that particular article.
We assume further, that no one
will insist that the Payne law Is per-
feet or approximately perfect We
do know that il is furnishing more
revenue than any other law ever en-
acted; that trade and industry are
picking up at a marvellous rate IN
der H.; that wages have been ad-
vanced since II was enacted: that
farm products are higher in proper !
ton than at any other time in the |
nations history, not even excepting |
during war times: and that the tariff
rates on the necessities of life have
been reduced.
Furthermore. we know that the
Payne bill contains three provisions
entirely new to the United States
the maximum and minimum rates.
by which the United States has
forced other countries to let our
products In under the most favored
nation clauses, and a tentative recip-
rocity with Canada has been effected:
Ait INA anu lut DuDlltlIY
of corporate books; and the tariff
commission, which is investigating
the cost of production here and
abroad, the wage scales, the markets.
the proximity to the raw material.
transportation charges and every
factor that enters into international
trade competition.
President Taft, who appointed the
commission, stated that II will be i'm
possible to secure a fair revision of
the tariff without such data as a non
partisan. unprejudiced commission
may gather; and TO tinker with the
schedules further without Il will be
but malicious interference with the
prosperity of the country. He has
expressed himself as determined to
secure this data within the next two
years and to call upon congress then
to revise the Payne bill in accord
ance with the finding of the commits
sion.
II may elect a free trade congress
next fall, pledged to tear down the
tariff schedules without any first
hand knowledge of the subject or in
formation II can trust, hoping only
to reduce the prices, which we are
paying for what we consume. and,
also, getting for what we produce;
or the country may await in patience
the report OF the committee. and
then elect whatever party the ajor-
ity desires to revise the tariff in ac-
cordance.
1t is neither logical nor consistent
to conclude, that, because the coun-(