The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-08-17
PEOPLE OF THIS
COUNTRY VICTIMS
WE LEAD THE WORLD IN THE
HIGH PRICES WE PAY FOR Al
MOST EVERY NECESSITY or
LIFE AND SOME OF THE REA-
SONS FOR SAME.

ne SLdLeIleHL pldb OthSE Eu~
rope, Asia or Africa. are suffering in
the same way does not help the in
quiry. Moreover, the figures show be-
yond dispute that the people of the
United States are the chief victims.
They lead the world by a long distance
in this bad supremacy. Then, too,
other great countries show actual de-
clines in the ten-year period in prices
of certain important commodities,
such as steel and iron, food products,
clothing and fuel. writes J.. J. Rooney
in The New York Times.
Scarcity OF commercial commodity
is reflected ina high price; abundance
in a low price. The object of industry
and invention, Improvement in trans
p~ortation and the processes of produc-
ton and distribution is to produce
abundance and a constantly falling
price. In other words, the true OBJ
ject Of trade is the obtaining Of large
profits through restriction of produc-
ton and maintaining scarcity Of prod
ucts at a high price IL an uneconomic
and false object of trade. Restricting
supply of a commodity and controlling
the price at an artificial level is re-
flected not alone in the price Of the ar
other commodities. thus tending to
raise the general price level.
When the process is applied to the
chief raw materials Of industry and
manufacture the effect is very striking.
No cause is more directly responsible
for the abnormal prices in the United
States than this. At the very root of
production the artificial lifting process
is applied. The effects become, in
their turn, causes of higher costs OF
production and higher prices in other
s-I..~AwaAA st - 49, - -Lr-- H.
ished products as their raw material
or as tools of production or distribu-
ton.
It is conservatively estimated that a
cotton or wooden mill in the United
States costs from 30 to 40 per cent
more to build and equip than in com
peting countries. The machinery. the
building materials, everything that
goes into the mill has been artificially
advanced in cost of production and
price. If OF domestic origin an ad-
vance equal to the tariff has passed
into the price; II OF foreign origin a
duty of IS per cent in the Ease Of ma
chinery is q part Of a tax laid upon 1T,
Much of the wooden machinery is i'm
ported.
In the case Of wool, IL imported du-
ties averaging over, so per cent are
levied: If domestic, the price is raised
somewhere approaching the foreign
price plus the duty and cost Of i'm
portation.
In turn all these taxes pass along
into the price. and a profit is taken by
each handler Of the article upon the
tariff tax itself. The dyestuffs that &C
into the cloth is likewise taxed and ar
tiicially raised in price, whether do
nestle or foreign.
Coal, lumber, ores, hbers of nearly
every description at the base of pro-
duction r treated In like manner
Food products Of every description are
taxed. and food Is the raw material OF
man-energy.
The farmer works his field with a
tariff taxed plow, q taxed spade, reaps
with a taxed reaper, binds with a tax
ed binder, Uses taxed wagon material
taxed nails, tools, lives in a taxed
house, lumber, tin, etc, full Of taxed
household articles, and when he ships
his products he must ship them over
a railroad the materials of which
steel and iron, ETC., have been artific-
tally raised by reason Of tariff taxes,
by at least 40 per cen over and above
the cost Of railroads used by his COM
petitors in other parts Of the world.
Thus, at the root Of production ev-
erywhere In the United States is q
cost-raising process. If this process
stopped with each article itself the
general result would not be SO strik-
ing. But it requires little knowledge
to see that all who come within the
effect of the process must recoup, II
possible, from others the extra tax
made prices. Thus the effect Is trans
ferred along the line Of production and
distribution.
Wages and salaries limp far in the
rear in such advances, both In amount
and point Of time. prices go up in the
elevator: wages by the stairs Is a fair
description Of the process.
These tariff taxes on the raw mater
ials OF industry are in turn made use
OF as an excuse Of corresponding
compensatory taxes on the finished
products OF manufacture, Of course
over and above the protective taxes
laid for the artificial raising of the
price Of the finished article.
That this artificial raising of the
cost Of production of our products, es-
pecially manufactures, Is at the base
OF our huge price structure is clearly
shown in many ways.
The process itself does enormous
harm to our ability to export into the
worlds markets, shuts up many OF
u manufactures to the United States
AaA0 p 6A04AO NAACACgJ h0lLOWb y pIOuuC-
ton, produces artificial scarcity and
special domestic prices.
In lines where our natural advan-
tages of production are great exporta-
ton is possible, even on a large scale
But there are two prices: a domestic
and an export price. These prices diff
fer by from 20 to so per cent in favor
of the export list. Literally, thousands
of instances of this situation could be
cited. Much of such exports become
the material of further manufacture
for foreign producers, who are thus
enabled to use our own materials
against US in competition In the
worlds neutral markets.
So striking has been this effect thai
many leading lines of American manu-
facture have actually been transferred
to Canada and to Europe to obtain the
benefits of cheaper worlds materials
No other great manufacturing ane
producing country in the world thus
taxes production except food products
at it's source.
The plan is part of the nationa'
method we have adopted of taxing
ourselves rich.
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