The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-31
OPPOSE FURTHER
 TARIFF CHANGES
Protection After War Will
 Be Aimed At Luxuries
TRUSTS GET MONEY
Tobacco Prices Showed Up-Dealers Prepare for New Budget-Will Not Serve Purpose for Which , It Was Intended

London. October 10. 0.(-Correspondence of The Associated Press. 1.-The new budget with its tarir innovations to which the free traders acquiesced quite willingly at first, has developed a strong opposition to further tariff changes and even to some already decided on. If any protective | tariff survives the war 1t will probably be | aimed only at certain luxuries and some products which Germany had succeeded in monopolizing before the war
 The new tobacco and tea tax is held
 up by the liberal organs as an object ! lesson in the effects of protection There
 has always been duty tax on these arti- cles. simply as means of raising reve- | by trusts
 Prepared for Change
 In anticipation of budget changes. the tea and tobacco importers, who always
 keep an immense stock on hand. had been l importing stocks to last for years. With the first rumors of the new budget they l began to take their goods out of bond. This was prevented to some extent by the arbitrary action of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the few days preceding
 the announcement of the new budget. | Under the new budget, the duty on tea was increased cents a pound and to- | bacco a bit under 3 cents. an ounce. But the day following the reading of the new budget in Parliament the tobacco trust announced a new scale for retailers, ad- vancing the price of tobacco cents ar ounce, while cigarettes were put up about
 % per cent pack. which weighs but part of an ounce. A 3-penny packet now costs
 4 pence. Most firms charge cents extra | zIxzk .u .tx ~x.ll l-l 12 to the half ounce.
 | The new budget, the free traders point
 out simply gave the trusts chance te shove up the prices of stocks already held
 in the limit of the new tariff wall. The, will pocket millions of dollars that should
 have gone to the government. Perhaps
 it will be years in some cases before tn, wholesaler begins to pay duty.
 | Tea is controlled by few big firm.
 who act in harmony. These firms con trol system of tea shops-cheap res taurants corresponding to the coffe, houses in Misunderstanding all ovel England. One firm has tea counters 1T
 every railway station in England and tes shops in every town of importance, witl a string In London composed of hundreds These firms ordinarily sell tea at cent
 a cup, but have now raised the price t, Is cents. As there are 100 cups of tea t, a pound-perhaps much more in the res taurants where the leaf Is boiled in sods so as to extract the full strength-the in creased profits amount to $1 pound oi the excuse of an Scent tariff.
 I Probable Effect
 Tea and tobacco are, of course, i'm ported products. But the action of thu
 tariff on articles not hitherto taxed, s one paper asserts, would be the same
 A protective tariff on food and wearin
 apparel would merely give the producer and handlers a chance to raise thei profits, it says, without benefifing labor
 while the increased cost of living woul
 force up wages that Great Britail
 could not meet foreign competition a
 she did in the days of cheap living.
 By an irony, the very tobacco trus
 which Is arousing so much indignation among the people, even to the extent o
 causing some to swear off smoking, me public support when first established. Tn
 American tobacco trust some years az threatened to invade the kingdom. There upon the British public rallied to tn
 defense of the British sellers, who estah lished defensive organization. The de fensive league is now made an offensiv
 league against the British public. It Is pointed out that MT. McKenn made grave mistake in not putting
 stamp tax on tobacco, instead of raisin the duties. This is done in the case c patent medicines, which charge the ex
 fixed. The dealers in medicine are give a certain time in which to comply t the new law