Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-07-19
Saturday, July 10, 1918.
Som. Tariff .Revision" spectacles.

With everything the farmer raises
on the free list, the Inconsistency of
Democratic statesmen is strikingly
shown in such instances as that of
bananas on which it is proposed to
put duty of five cents per bunch.
Referring to this spectacle the Troy
Times says:
The Democrats have been loud in
professions of determination to re-
duce the cost of living by cutting down
the Tariff. Bananas are almost ex-
clusively of tropical growth. A small
quantity of the fruit is produced in
the warmer sections of the United
States, but not enough to affect ma.
terially the situation. Practically the
upon foreign sources. The fruit has
become popular. The quantity i'm
ported has increased to enormous pro-
portions within a comparatively few
years. The Democratic revisers ex-
peeted to raise $7,0O0,000 annually
from the duty on bananas. And the
consumers will be soaked" far more
than that amount. Already it is an
nounced that the imposition of a duty
will add from $15,000,000 to $20,000.00O
TO the cost of the fruit, for the pro.
dueers and shippers are always quick
to take advantage of such conditions.
When it comes to raising rates they
Will go the revisers several points
better. and the consumer will pay the
freight. Bananas are especially the
food of the poor, for the fruit is cheap
and is believed To be nutritious. And
every poor family compelled to pay
more for bananas will have an object
lesson right at home as to the manner
in which the Democratic Tariff-re
visers reduce the cost of living
The Republican plan was to make
tax free or nearly so, what we cannot
produce The Democratic plan is OPP
posite. for they admit free what we
can produce and tax what We can't.
like bananas. Their favorite con-
tention for years has been that raw
materials" should be free. Now they
ignore that principle. There is a
duty ON imported skins, the raw ma
while shoes, finished product, are
admitted duty free. Wheat is to pay
q duty of 10 per cent, while flour
gees ON the free list. This means a |
bounty of 10 per cent. TO British and |
Canadian millers without any re-
turn.
How is that for reciprocity? Will
Maine farmers like it any better than |
they did the Taft brand?
An exchange calls attention, also to |
the case of the vanilla bean, free in /
every Republican Tariff for years. is
to pay 50 cents per pound. Yet, by |
no possibility, can the vanilla bean be |
grown In this country, while the arti-
Gle is imperatively necessary to many |
American industries engaged in pro-
dueing extracts. The sole effect of |
the vanilla bean duty will be to in
crease the cost OF production of the
extract and raise the price to every /
consumer.
This is the way the Democratic adj
ministration goes about reducing the
high cost of living No wonder
Bryan couldn't live on $4,000 year.
The Rochester IN. " Democrat
and Chronicle says:
THE Democratic statesmen who |
propose to reduce the tariff upon i'm |
ported articles so as to place our |
manufacturers in keener competition /
with foreign manufacturers who pay |
Iar less wages are going to compel |
our employers TO pay the same high |
rate OF wages under the new eonai- /!
tions. That Is probably perfectly
frank expression of belief on the part
of the Democratic disciples of tariff |
a certain school of political economy
undoubtedly believe that without
tariff protection our industries can
compete with foreign industries
where labor conditions are entirely
different, and where wages are very
much lower, and still continue to pay
the American scale of wages.
But when they say to American
manufacturers that they must pay
high wages. tariff or no tariff, they
are going farther than good reason
VIII guarantee. When the other
Wilson tariff bill began to cast It's
shadow over the prosperity of this
country there was rumble of dis
tress and a ground swell of disaster
peiofe which any comamnd of a de-
paTtment OF the government would
seem like commanding the ocean to
be calm or the waters of Niagara to
turn back We all hope this condi-
ton OF affairs will not again prevail,
but another Wilson is playing with
the fire."