Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1910-09-22
TARIFF A BURDEN
Vastly Increases the Cost of Pro-
duction
TARIFFS BREED TIA
TARIFFS

Manufacturers and Consumers Alike
Suffer From the Protective System.
High Duties on Raw Materials Bar
Our Products From Worlds Markets.
The high tariff is getting to be looked
upon by intelligent manufacturers as
being more of a burden to them than a
benefit. If they get protection to the
extent Of 80, 60 or even 100 per cent
upon their products they are also
taxed heavily for the materials they
use. Everything we buy" says the
National Association of Agricultural
Implement Manufacturers, sis protect
ed by rates running from 10 to rs per
cent and yet we are open to England.
which is the lowest priced market in
the world and buys her materials at
from Is to 40 per cent below us"
Mr.. Walter II. Langshaw of New
Bedford Mass, gives similar testi-
mony about the cotton trade. In a
statement published in the New York
Journal of Commerce he says that the
cotton industry requires nearly twice
as much capital to equip and operate
plant as it does in England and pays
As per cent on all it's imported machin-
cry or its equivalent to domestic man
ufacturers.'
Representative Foss of Massachu-
sets, large manufacturer who en-
joys tariff Of 45 per cent upon his
products. declared in a speech in con-
gress a few months ago that he was
perfectly willing to have the 45 per
cent taken off provided the duty on
his materials were taken off at the
same time. He further said: 81 believe
today that under free trade conditions
we can compete in the markets of the
world in most. if not all, of these in
dustries, and compete to better advan-
tage than we do now
In asking for tariff of so per cent
on sweetened biscuits (Which they
have since ObtainedD. firm of biscuit
manufacturers gave as a reason the
fact that they could not compete with
the foreigner because he got his ma
chinery and appliances free of duty.
whereas they had to pay a heavy duty
on their imported machinery as we'll
as a total duty of 1874 per cent upon
the wooden felt aprons used by their
wOrkmen
Facts like these could be supplied
ad infnitum. They all teach the same
lesson-that the tariff increases the
cost not only of the article on which
it is placed. but also of other articles
whose production depends upon it.
Our manufacturers of advanced
goods complain about the high cost of
production. But this high cost of
production turns out to be due in most
cases to the high tariff on their mate
rails. Our national policy has hitherto
been when we have put tariff on
crude products to put another tariff on
the manufactured articles lest the sec
ond man should be at a disadvantage
as compared with the first man.
And so on throughout every stage Of
industry till we come to the final con-
sumner, who buys the finished article
and who generally sells labor in re-
turn. He stands at the end of the line.
Do we give him a compensatory tariff
on what he has to sell, as we gave the
others? We do not. He is the man
next the wall, and he has to bear the
burden. And if he only knew his own
interests he would go to the polls in
November and insist upon removing
every layer of protection from the
ground upward which the machina
lions of organized selfishness have
thickly laid upon our industrial sys-
tenn.
Then will the natural cost of produc-
ton determine prices. Then will our
manufacturers be better off by buying
cheap and selling cheap than they are
now by buying dear and selling dear.
T. SCANLON.