The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1915-08-25
AMERICAN IN
DUSTRIES SUFFER
With Lack Of "Horse Sense" Demo-
cratic Party Dynamites the
Protective Tariff Wall.
BAKING POWDER COMPANIES HIT
Foreign Factories Benefited White tho
Home Concerns Suffer at the
Hands of Democratic Party

| Washington, Aug. 24-(Special Cor
| experimentation one industry in
| this country has been walloped, due
| to the lack of plain American horse
sense on the part of those gentleman
whom the country, in 1912, inadvert-
emily empowered to dynamite our
protective tariff wall, is aptly illus
1rated in an article appearing in
report published by the department of
commerce. 1t is the tartaric acid and
! cream of tartar industry-products
extensively used in the manufacture
of baking powders, effervescent drinks
in Seidlitz powders. etc. New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio and California are
largely interested in that industry.
Quoting from this article: Import
of tartaric acid for the fiscal year 1914
amounted to S4S,575 pounds, and of
cream Of tartar to S12,S57 pounds, fig
ures that reveal a remarkable in
crease over the 1892 pounds and
66,7lS pounds respectively recorded
for the previous year. This increased
importation followed the tariff reduc-
ton that became effective in October,
1918"
Those figures may not look very
big to the layman, but a pound of such
| material goes a long ways, and when
| it is said that the estimated manufac-
ture in this country OF tartaric acid
is 100000 pounds, the ratioS of i'm
portation can be appreciated. This
is what Mr.. Underwood would call
competing article
The Harshaw Fuller & Goodwin Co.,
Cleveland, o. testified that, accord
| ing to their expert, who for fifteen
years was superintendent of the larg-
est factory in Europe, the cost of
building and equipping their factory
was almost double that of similar
plant in France. And further on:
Our minimum wage is 50 per day.
and the average wage paid is $3.50
per day. In the French factory, of
which our superintendent had charge.
the minimum wage paid was 311a
francs per day; the average. was
4 francs or a little less than 80 cents
per day American money. In other
words. the average daily wage in the
French factory is less than One-third
of the average wage in our factory.
We would not object to a reduction Of
the present tariff OH the finished
goods, provided corresponding re-
duction were made on the raw mate
rails. but the partly between the two
| must be maintained" f, J.a...f
A pertinent suggestion was offered
by several California firms, who said:
mo doubt you will agree with us that
tariff revisions should not be enacted
| which, at best, can procure but a
very slight reduction in cost for the
ultimate consumer by destroying a
domestic manufacturing industry and
| with it the market for domestic raw
material, with consequent loss to
American labor interested in both"
| Did the ways and means committee
heed this advice? Nary a heed.
bunch of Italian importers from New
York City subsidized by the Italian
government and designed to promote
the industries of Italy, called the
Italian chamber OF commerce. got III
their good work and the 10 democrat
ic legal lights whose oil came from
the while house and whose wicks
were trimmed by Oscar Underwood,
adopted practically all the recommen-
dations of this chamber. Our manu-
facturers We're required to pay the
old duty of S per cent on the crude
product. argol. the duty on cream OF
tartar was cut so per cent, tartaric
acid, 80 per cent. and Rochelle salts,
II per cent-the democratic idea OF
duty on crude materials for manu-
facture, and tariff for revenue only,
with resultant competition, on the
manufactured product
But the man who cuddles his Red
Raven split the next, morning, and the
housewife who tempts his appetite
with batch of baking powder bis
cults, reap no benefit from the tariff
industry