Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1921-06-17
MEMBER or ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE DAMNABLE TARIFF.

Several years ago we stood one
day amid vast display of American
made goods arranged in great
semi-circle in Madison Square Gar
dens in New York. The display was
arranged by the opponents of the
damnable protective tariff-the tar
if which has protected the Infant
industries" until they now dictate
the policies of this nation for more
than a hudred million souls.
Every article arranged in this vast
display had been bought in foreign
markets, brought back here and the
duty paid on it, as if it were foreign
manufacture, and the result marked
on a placard attached, together with
the prices charged for the same arti-
Gle in this country. There were ra-
zor blades, made in this country by
a widely advertised concern, and
which sold on the local market for
forty cents per package, but which
cost ten cents per package in Ger
many at retail. There were pocket
knives, farming implements of all
kinds, bicycles, skates, railroad loco
motives, railway cars, street cars,
fire hose, telephones, monographs,
type-setting machines, automobiles,
rope, paper, woodenware of all kinds
silverware, gold ware and jewelry-
everything that one could think of,
The tags gave the information of
where each article was bought, what
was paid for it and what the sale
price was in this country. In every
instance the article was bought in a
foreign country shrdlu cmfwyp shrd
foreign market, after freight and
selling charges had been paid, and
sold at an average of half what was
demanded for it in this country
where it was manufactured.
We spent an entire day going over
this exhibit, and resolved then that
if federal statute books contain one
single iniquitous, unfair, throttling
law it is the protective tariff law.
A few days ago Thomas E. Wat
son of Georgia, speaking in the Unit
ed States Senate made speech that,
to our mind entities him to forgive
ness for many Of the political sins
he has been guilty Of He attacked
the protective tariff, and with the
great fund of information which he
has stored up after years Of study |
of the situation he was able to cause
no small amount of uneasiness on the /
part Of the Uncle TRUSTEES" within
hearing. Some Of the things he said |
are:
Congress never passed a worse
o."oo".ic law than thar which receiv-
ed the full Republican vote and that
Q, Two Democrats, last we-G.
1T will not put one dollar into the
pocket Of the workers, nor reduce, by
one cent, the war profits of the mo-
nopolists, or add single market for
any American product.
Behind the graves of our dead
soldiers, our Unsuitable money-mak-
ers have thrown up a high breast
work to keep our goods from coming
in.
when the damnabIe system of in
direct taxation was first established
its favorites were the shoemakers of
Lynn, Mass.
1T was on infant industry and
claimed the right to be protected |
from the foreign manufacturer while
the Lynn shoemaker was establish
ing himself.
THE shoemaker is now so well es-
tablished that he can get $14 for a
pair of shoes which, in England, |
would sell for 81.
"The farmer gets less than 81 for
the hide of a COW, and it often hap
pens that the freight takes the entire
value.
The same applies to nearly every
one of the 1000 articles protected by
the tariff: the man who produces the
raw material gets virtually nothing,
while the manufacturer gets it all.
THE man who produces the live
stock, the wheat, and the cotton, is on
the brink of ruin, while the greedy |
hogs that manufacture the products
control the wealth of the country.
1T used otbe the stock argument
Of the manufacturers that when
foreign competition was excluded
prices would always be
assured within the American market