The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-02-24

food regardless of other conditions. If both of these causes operated Jointly as they would, for example, 1T the food, which I have assumed is tram sported at such large expense, Wer e bought in a town which imposed an octrof tax. then both these causes would tend to raise the price of food and both these causes would operate whether a crop was destroyed in the west or whether that crop was large, but the fact of the destruction of that crop or the fact of the excess of that crop might be so large a fact sas to overcome the operation in whole or in part of either or both of the local causes have suggested.
 Argentine Beef Question
 The tariff tax of the United States on beef did not make it cost more to grow cattle on the plains of Argen-. tina It did tend to make the price higher here at home If our supply was short and we had to import Ar- genuine beef, then the tax directly operated to- raise the price, but if there were a great excess of SArgen- tine beef so that their market was oyer-stocked with beef, then that beef might be sold at a lower price even while the tariff tax stood. On the other hand, if there were a shortage or if there were only a normal sup ply of Argentine beef, then the tarin tax therein would be a more visible addition to the cost. In other words, the tariff tax is one element, and only one element, in the cost of commOdi- ties. It is sometimes directly felt. It always tends to increase cost At times factors larger than it may oper-s ate. This is such obvious common sense as to be beyond argument
 Now it is the fact that in recent years the tariff tax has so operated on food as to make it visIbly more, costly. For example, there was time recently when potatoes were import ed when ouE supply was scant and when the tariff tax on potatoes was equal to about fifty per cent of their price, and necessarily increased their cost. On the other hand, it is the fact now that Argentine beef is being shipped to New ork free of the tariff tax, and this has resulted in a decline in the wholesale New York market for beef of about four cents a pound This reduction when transmitted to the local New York retailer has re- suited in a reduction Of the price Of beef locally in that city of about two cents a pound As beefshas gone out side of that city into the country at large the reduction in price has been absorbed by the dealers and has been little felt as yet.
 Butter Price Cut
 It is the fact too that butter has been reduced in price by the large re- cent iTnpOrtatiOnS Of that food, and I have known that preserved milk has been offered in this country. at lower prices than those which have hereto fore prevailed. Furtherm ore. the inn portation of Argentine corn has dur ing the recent winter operated at least to prevent a rise in the price of corn in our Atlantic Coast cities if it has not directly reduced the price in those cities. It is or it ought to be a Wel1-s known fact, for it is a matter of pub lie announcement, that the price of woolen cloth from the largest makers has been reduced this winter from if teen to twenty-five per cent. The price lists of the American Woolen sted Company and other textile mills show this plainly. It is rather too much to expect that these reductions tat the source'' should permeate rap idly throughout the retail processes of distribution into the hands of every man and woman. There are a good many media between the producer and the consumer whose interest it is to get as large price as possible. This Argentine beef which reaches New ork. Nevertheless, it is the fact, as large dry goods dealer has recently stated. that many things are bought in the wholesale trade already more cheaply than they were a year ago, particularly wooIens and. as we have seen, beef and butter
 Tends to Reduction
 The tendency is therefore clearly and openly in the direction of a reduc- ton in the cost of food and clothing through the removal of the tariff tax.