Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-07-19
CHAMP CLARKS
FOOLISH TALK

Champ Clark, who came so near
getting the nomination at the DEM
ocratic convention, is credited with
saying that he hoped to live to see
every yestige of q custom house dis
appear from this country, and he has
not changed his view one particle,
says an exchange. Mr.. Clark
has, however, been little more dis
Greet about his utterances since he
became Speaker. and since his entry
into the race for the presidential nom-
nation But he is as radical follower
of Bryan now as in the past.
In a recent speech at Frankfort,
Kentucky, he declared that the PRO
tective Tariff costs the people of this
country billion and a half dollars
yearly" and that "it is gross out
rage and cruelty upon the taxpayers. =
Taking as his basis 1890, 000. 900
paid into the treasury as revenue, he
assumes that five times that amount,
or considerably more than a billion
and half dollars. is paid by the
people to swell the profits Of Ameri-
can manufacturers. This lis, of
course, a ridiculous assertion. 1t
conveys the Inference that the sell
ing price of pretty much the whole
volume of domestic merchandise has
been increased to the extent and be-
cause of the tariff on competitive inn
ports. If this were true, the increased
Prices paid on the entire volue of
go, 000, 100000 worth of domestic man
ufactures would amount to about ST.
000, 000,009 instead of the 800, 000,-
000 named by Clarg. Of course. it is
not true either as to the $8,000,000, 900
or the 81 500, GOO, 900. 1t Is not true
as to our $750,000,000 of dutiable inn
ports, for in most cases the foreign
producer pays the American tariff in
cutting down his prices so as to en-
able him to pay our tariff and still get
into our market. -
One of the inyariable results of the
American Protective Tariff has been
to cut down foreign prices. Our tariff
on steel rails was at one time SIS a
ton, and the price of rails was 500 a
ton. Now the tariff is $3.50 per ton,
and the price is $2S ton. The Euro
pean price being practically the same.
the American price, tariff added,
should be $31.50 a ton. But 1t is not.
It is s3S. The price of tin plate, prior
to 1890, was So per hundred pounds.
Mckinley put tariff on tin plate to
encourage its manufacture in this
country,s and in a short time the Brit
ish makers were selling their tin plate
in our markets, duty paid, at So. Ac-
cording to Champ Clark's theory tin
plate should have sold here at 81 after
the tariff had been put on. But 1t did
not it sold at SO. The tariff did not
add to the price; it reduced the price
from SIS to So. What the Tariff did,
and what it has unfailingly done, was
to establish the industry in the Unit
ed States. American enterprise, as
sured by Protective Tariff Of the
opportunity to do business, and Amer
lean competition, which no tariff has
ever checked or stified, conjoined to
break down the high prices previously
extorted by the British tin plate max
ers when We had no tin plate mills
of our own and our market was at
the mercy of foreign producers. So
it has been in all lines of industrial
productions. The American Protec-
tive Tariff has never cost the Ameri-
can one dollar by reason of raising
prices to the American producer. On
the contrary, it has so lowered prices
that it has saved to American consum
ers many billions of dollars.