Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1910-08-19
TARIFF BLAMED
FOR HIGH LIVING
MINORITY REPORT OF SENATE
PRoeERs is scATHINo At
TACK ON CONDITIONS.
WooLENS AND SUGAR DISCUSSED
Trusts and Increased Money Supply
Are Branded az Contributing
causes.-Champagne Drink
Ing Encouraged.


trusts, combines and monopolies and
an increased money supply are the
three substantial causes for the ad
vance in prices in the United States
according to Senators Johnston of Ala
bama, Clarke of Arkansas and Smith
OF South Carolina, minority members
of the select senate committee ap'
pointed during the last session to IN
vestigate and make report on wages
and the prices of commodities.
Vigorous attack is made in the MI
nority members report on almost all
the reasons given by the majority IN
its report, submitted sometime ago,
as to the cause for the advance in
prices.
After attacking, one at a time, the
Is principal causes contributing, &C.
cording to the majority report, to the
high cost of living, the minority takes
M the tariff, declaring that when the
Payne. Aldrich bill was framed cham
pagne was put on the schedules at
from "a to 66 per cent, whilst wearing
apparel was taxed from so to 80 per
cent-drinking champagne was to be
encouraged and wearing wooden
clothes discouraged.
$50 with hats they add. Those
bringing not over $3.50 per dozen were
taxed II per cent and those valued at
more than $1S per dozen AZ per cent. ;"
Protective Tariff Is Hard Hit.
The result of protection, they de-
clare, is great fortunes for the few
and great suffering for the many.
eve 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 approximately to the ex-
tent of the tariff, and that when we
do not buy the imported articles the
protected manufacturer puts approx
mately the amount of it on the goods
produced by him.
Light Is Turned on Sugar.
Showing the effect of the tariff on
prices, the report instances sugar, on
which the New York consumer, it
says, pays more than the London con-
sumner by the difference between the
sugar tariffs in the two countries plus
II cents per- hundred pounds.
Taking up the subject of trusts.
combinations and monopolies. the re-
port declares that there are few
trusts that could survive revenue
tariff. They flourish only under the
shadow of high protective walls.
Standing behind those walls that shut
of foreign competition and destroy
ing domestic competition by consoli-
dations and descriptions. they are linn
tied only to selling at a fraction less
than the foreign price plus the pro-
tective duty.
Profits Are Called Enormous.
That they reduce cost of production
seems certain, but it is in rare cases
that the public or the laborers en-
ployed by them participate in the en-
larged profit. So enormous have been
their profits that we find organizations
springing up all over the country, like
the Elgin Board of Trade, the whole
sale grocers, lumber dealers--associa.
lions that have contributed largely to
the advance in prices and the frauds
perpetrated by manufacturers of GER
tain goods in reducing the weight OF
contents of packages from 20 to 81
per cent and maintaining the same
price.