The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1916-12-21
Where the Sho, Pinches.

The Republican Publicity Associa-
ton, through its president, Hon. Jona-
than Bourne, Jr., today gave out the
following statement at its Washing
ton headquarters:
'3The burden of the high cost of
living which now rests upon the Ameri-
can people, serves to emphasize an i'm
portant fact and still more important
principle. In 1912 the Democratic
party charged the high cost of living
to the protective tariff, and falsely as
serted that although the workingmen
of the United States are better paid
than the workingmen in free-trade
country yet they pay so much more for
the articles they consume that they are
injured rather than benefited.
"'The enactment of the Democratic
tariff law not only failed to reduce the
cost of living, even before the war
began, but brought about an industrial
depression which caused suffering and
want throughout the length and
breadth of the land In the present
abnormal but much boasted prosperity,
the cost of living has advanced far
more rapidly than the increase in
wages. We have seen many of the
necessaries Of life increase forty to
sixty per cent in cost while wage in
creases of five or ten per cent have
been heralded by the Democratic ad-
ministration as great achievements Of
Democratic policies.
Contrast that with conditions I'M
der prosperity produced by a pro-
tective tariff A report made by the
British Board of Trade in 1911, show
ing the result of an investigation made
by that organization in the United
States upon the subject of wages and
cost of living, admits that the wages
of the American workingman would
buy far more than the wages of the
British workingman, and still leave
the former far more money to lay away
in savings banks or life insurance poll
cies than is possible for his British
cousin. Wages were found to be one
hundred and thirty per cent higher in
the United States than In England and
Wales, while the American paid only
tifty-two per cent more for food and
rent, though he ate more and better
food and lived in a better house.
80 much for the facts. Now for
the principle.
"While protective tariff puts a
handicap upon competition from abroad
it encourages investment in domestic
enterprises, and thus creates competi-
ton at home. BY developing indus
tries which operate at full capacity,
and thereby reducing the unit cost Of
production, protective tariff ulti-
mately reduces the cost Of the product
to the consumer. This was amply il
lustrated in the case of tin plate
Prior to 1891, we had absolutely no tin
industry, but purchased our supply in
the British Isles. Tin plate was then
costing us AS cents per pound. The
tariff law Of 1890 placed a duty of %
cents per pound on tin, with the re
suit, that large tin plate industries
were started in this country. We not
only gave employment to our own peo-
pie, but domestic competition became
so keen that the price was reduced to
80 cents per pound.
GIVE have today a precarious form
of protection resulting from the war in
Europe, but it is not such protection
as will encourage any conservative
business man to invest in permanent
productive enterprise The sort of pro
lection we have today merely induces
men to establish mushroom industries
which depend upon tn war and which
thy expect to abandon when the war
is over. This unsound and temporary
form of protection will not establish
industries Of such permanent character
as to create continuous competition in
the production of commodities for dc
nestle consumption.
1T is important, therefore, that we
reflect upon the fact that free trade
not only diminished employment but
did not reduce the cost of living, and
also that by encouraging home pro
duction protective tariff permanently
increases home competition, and, as a
consequence, reduces both the actual
and the relative price which the con
sumner must pay