The Republican journal., 1918-06-27
THEORY AND MATCHES.

Our tariff commission was created
for The purpose of collecting facts, and,
from the information it obtained, to make
recommendations to Congress in regard
TO changes which in its opinion, should
he made in our tariff laws. The majority
of this commission is made up OF men,
bers who are business men only IN theory,
and who favor free trade. Or as they
express their opinion, they declare that
the ";deal way to dc business is to buy
where one can buy cheapest. This is
an alluring theory to many people who
are both selfish and shortsghted and have
little to sell, and who buy much from a
fixed income But this theory like al
most every other, when persistently fol-
lowed, ends in an absurdity. OF course
if this theory was followed and every
body in the United States bou hit all pos
sible of their necessities in countries
where cheap la Dor abounds the time would
soon come when those who now work III
manufacturing establishments here would
have no money to buy anything at home
or abroad The commission has found
out and has announced that labor is
cheaper III foreign countries than it is
here, but there is nothing to indicate
that they regard this discovery as of any
inheritance. We know this because they
are on record as having said that "differ-
ences in the cost of wages have COM
paratively little to do with trade After
coed to say that 'tthe cost of production
is the central factor in determining COM
netitiye conditions" Since labor is the
Nscentral factor" in determining competi-
tive conditions, the last proposition con-
fradicts the first That the central fac
tor" is labor may be shown by the report
which the commission has recently con-
cluded concerning matches. They have
found that we have 26 plants engaged in
making matches, that the capital invest
ed in this business is Sl2 600, 900 and that
1000 people are employed and are paid
with good American money. These wage
earners have homes and the wages they
earn are spent here in the United States.
These wages contribute to the support OF
the agricultural manufacturing and mer-
camille business of this country The
commission has also found and has stated
that Sweden and Japan are our chief
competitors in the match business.
Further more they state that in the three
years ending in 1917, Sweden sold US
twice as many matches as in any other
previous three years, and that Japan had
sold US 40 times as many. Japan pays
the workers in her match factories from
IA to 20 cents day. This central fac
tor and the Democratic free trade sched-
ule on matches, is rapidly driving our
match industry to it's doom. After this
is accomplished, after our plants have
closed their doors, after the machinery
is covered with rust, Sweden and Japan
will combine to raise prices and we shall
be held up to pay more for matches than
we do now. We could lose our match
Ilsi1ess without vely much disturbanc
to our economic conditions, except II
here and there little community, butte
this Democratic scheme of free trade
strikes at hundreds, in fact at nearly al
cur Industries When this is done theI
follows disaster, next follows the politl
cal overthrow OF the Democratic party
and slew recovery of business by pro
tection. This has happened so man!
times stree this has been Republic tina
it would seem that the voters OF thl
county should have learned the fallacle
f the free trade doctrine.