Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-16
WHY FOOD IS HIGH
Minority Members of Senate
Committee File Report.
BLAME TARIFF AND TRUSTS
Increase Of Gold, They Say, May Be
Partly Responsible.
CITE FREE TRADE ENGLAND
Declare Condition Of Laborer There
Has Improved Since the Tariff
Was Removed.
BLAME TARIFF AND TRUSTS
CITE FREE TRADE ENGLAND

| was Removed.
| Why does 1t cost so much to live now
adays? Why is 1t that the necessities
of life are going up In price all the
time?
| According to the minority members OF
| the Senate committee appointed at the
last session of Congress to investigate
wages and commodities. the trusts and
the tariff are directly responsible. An
increased money supply also helps In
this direction, Senators Johnston OF
Alabama, Clarke OF Arkansas and Smith
Of South Carolina. say. but the trusts
and the tariff furnish the main reasons
for the high cost Of living.
They do not agree with the reasons ad-
vanced by the majority members Of the
committee. published some time ago. as
to the cause Of the advance in prices,
and attack the position Of the majority
In every case.
Trusts and Tariff Chief.
I'VE are without sufficient data" say
the minority members. TO apportion the
degree OF responsibility between three
chief malefactors we have no doubt; and
they are Of our own creation or permits
sion"
After attacking, one at a time, the
fifteen principal causes contributing, ac-
oordfng to the ma jority report, to the
high cost Of living, the minority take up
the tariff. declaring that when the
Payne-Aldrich bill was framed cham
payne was put on the schedules at from
81 to 60 per cent. while wearing APP
parel was taxed from so to % per cent
drinking champagne was to be encour-
aged and wearing wooden clothes dis
couraged. SO with hats they add,
those bringing not over $3.50 per dozen
were taxed u per cent and those valued
at more than S1S per dozen Al per cent"
The result OF protection, they declare.
is great fortunes for the few and great
sunering for the many" 1--WE believe, :
they say, that the amount of the tariff
is added TO the price and taxed to the
consumer; that but for the tariff the
commodities We buy upon which that
tax Is laid would be cheaper, approx
| mately to the extent Of the tariff; and
that when we do not buy the imported
article the protected manufacturer puts
approximately the amount of II on the
goods produced by him.
No Other Reason for Tariff.
1T is difficult to understand how any
one can favor high rates Of duty il he
does not honestly believe that 1t will
increase the prices to be realized by the
manufacturers producing the article af-
fected. by diminishing or destroying COM
petition, and thus necessarily increas-
ing the cost to the consumer. Then we
were many times mournfully warned
that any reduction in rates would flood
our country with lower-priced German
products, and that the smoke of Ameri-
can manufactures would disappear from
the heavens. Now we are informed that
the tariff has not Increased the cost OF
these articles entering into every house
hold and administering to the health and
comfort of every family
Showing the effect of the tariff on
prices. they instance sugar. on which
the New York consumer, they say. pays
more than the London consumer by the
difference between the sugar tariff In the
two countries, plus IL cents per hundred
pounds.
1T Is scarcely necessary" they add,
TO mention the iniauitous woolen sched-
uie-where the tariff rates are so high
on these necessities Of our people as TO
practically preclude any foreign compe-
tition with the American manufacturer
except on high-priced goods purchased
by the weather. consumer, who can, to
some extent, disregard price,
Tariff Necessary to Trusts.
Taking up the subject OF trusts, COM
binations and monopolies. they declare
that there are few trusts that could
survive revenue tariff. They flourish
only under the shadow OF high protec-
tive walls Standing behind these walls
that shut off foreign competition and
destroying domestic competition by con-
solicitations and absorptions, they are
limited only to selling at a fraction less
than the foreign price. plus the protec-
tive duty. That they reduce cost OF pro-
duction seems certain. but it Is In rare
cases that the public or the laborers
employed by them participate in the en-
larged profit. So enormous have been
their profits that we find organizations
sprfnging up all over the country, like
the Elgin board of trade, the wholesale
grocers. lumber MISREPRESENTATION
that have contributed largely to the ad-
vance In prices and the frauds perpe-
in reducing the weight of contents OF
packages from p to 80 per cent, and
maintaining the same price
Methods of Meat Trust.
THE methods of the meat trust" they
declare, seem to be admirably adapted
to taking from the consumer and the
producer the largest amount that the
tariff will bear. Their destruction of
local competitors cannot be improved
upon" As what they call a sample Of
the working Of our combines" they say
that while everywhere else in the world
the price OF harvesting machinery has
been appreciably reduced since 1900, In
the United States II has been materially
increased. The increase" they add,
started nearly contemporaneousiy with
the Dingley tariff
AS to wages. they say that 1.-The fear
that wages would fall II the tariff were
removed, and the fall In prices would not
be a. clear gain to the consumer is NOT
warranted by the experience OF Great
Britain. Great Britain is a free-trade
nation. and IL Is the most prosperous
nation in the world except our own.
Shoals OF entrants from the tariff-riden
nations OF France. Germany, ItaIy ana
Russia go to England to work. But
Engltshmen do not emigrate to those
countries because the standard of living
Is lower. The general testimony is that
the rate Of wages for all mechanical
trades Is substantially higher in Great
Britain than In those protectionist coun-
tries. while the prices OF necessities are
lower, leaving the Englishman q wider
margin to live upon.
Free Trade in Britain.