The Glenwood post., 1920-12-04
lJac,e Tets bet Tine Stories
Current Events For tbs children
and QEown-upe, Too
TOYS AND TARIFF.


which aroused the curiosity of Ruth
and Jack. Slowly unwrapping it, ho
placed before them . beautiful gyro-
scope top which had stamped on its back
in small letters "Made in America. :"
With long string he wound up the
top and set it spinning, placing it first
on his index finger, then upright on
the table, and finally resting the tip on
the edge of his tobacco can 50 that the
body Of the top was horizontally in
clined. There it remained humming
merrily, to the astonishment and de-
light Of the two children, who were as
much at a loss to explain the phenom-
enon as scientists Of far greater ability
have been.
"Mercy me-" cried Ruth, "whst
makes that top behave that wayi I
should think it would fall" And Jack
wanted to know what was the big idea
in stamping the words on it.
"I cannot answer Ruth's question:
said Uncle Ted "The workings Of the
gyroscope are difficult to explain. and
many scientific articles have been writ
ten about It. But I can answer your
question, Jack, and as that top Is guar
anteed to spin Tor ten minutes, I will
test it out with a~ten minute talk on
toys "Made in America" And as the
eyes Of the children flashed from Uncle
Ted to the top and back again, he pro-
ceeded:
"Some time before the election which
laid the world club fellows on the shelf
I gave you a talk about the tariff and
peanuts, if you remember. Now I am
going to give you an illustration Of how
the European war acted as a protective
tariff on American industries. Tho toy
industry is fine example of this. Be
cause the nations of Europe were 80
busy fighting and making things to kill
people with they had no time to make
many things which they had been send
ing to this country to sell at prices
which our makers could not meet be-
cause we pay our factory hands such
high wages.
"Before the war Santa Claus used
to load his sleigh up high with toys
made in Germany and other foreign
countries when he got ready to come
to the United States. and on Christmas
morning when you got up you found
your stockings bullying with Nurem
berg dolls and Japanese playthings.
If Ruth had been real good that year
she found a French doll which could
say mamma and papa had real hair
and closed her eyes when put to bed,
and Jack found toy soldiers made in
Japan. All this has changed.
"The manufacture Of toys and dolls
began in this country as far back as
1885, but nothing was done to help the
trade for number of years. But in
1897 man named Dingley, who was at
the head Of the Committee Of Ways
and Means, in Congress, which makes
our tariff laws, 'Put protective duty
of IS per cent on toys which came in
from abroad. At that time William
Mckinley was president a Statesman
whom our new president, Mr.. Harding,
much resembles. Mckinley was al
ways ready to help American indus
tries. From 1899 to 1909 our toy indus
try increased from 100000 to S.
100000 year in value of products.
This was due chiefly TO the part which
the protective tariff PLAYED in encour-
aging American business.
"Still large quantities came in from
abroad because they were made so
chcaplv the sellers could paw the tariff
duty and undersell many American
toys. When the Democratic party
passed its low tariff law it did not make
any great reduction in the tariff on toys
although it adopted some classifcations
which were not helpful But the tariff
law signed by President Wilson made
times so hard just before the war that
the toy industry suffered with the rest.
However, the war came along, war pros
perity hit this country, and TOYS from
Germany were held up by the British
blockade although the Japanese imports
increased
CHOW, just consider what American
enterprise has accomplished while be-
foreign competition in toys. Harry C.
Ives, president of the toy manufacturers
of the Upited States, said recently that
the American production of toys for
1890 will reach $s0,00O,OOO in value