Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-01
THE WOMEN AND THE
TARIFF.

The Boston Post is of the opin.
ion that the women voters of the
country will react more powerfully
against the new republican tariff
than the men voters will. 1t says
I'VE see how much the new bill
bears down upon these women ir
the matter of foodstuffs. AS to
the tariff on clothes, the case is
equally plain. Women should get
busy on this wool tariff; they do
the buying of the clothes for their
children and sometimes for their
husbands. And they do the mend.
ing and repairs. In clothing OF
cheap substitutes for wool the wear
ing quality as to strength and
warmness is sacrificed and wool
substitutes do not take dyes in a
satisfactory way and do not hold
their color, so that cheap, poor
cloth soon looks shabby and faded.
Over IS per cent of the cost of a
suit of clothes made from wool
substitutes is practically sacrificed
by lack of durability if the cloth
is not made from wool. That is,
the cutting, trimming and making
and selling, all the conversion cost
of cloth is practically the same,
whatever the quality of the cloth.
If the cloth is poor, this conversion
cost is largely sacrificed"
The argument Of the Boston
newspaper seems about sound to
us. The new republican tariff is
the highest eve proposed in this
country. It's avowed purpose is to
raise the cost price Of things pro
duced in this country by eliminat-
ing competition from other coun-
tries which they claim forces prices
down to a point where they cannot
pay American wages and have a
fair profit left for themselves. The
point to which prices must be
raised to give them that fair profit
is left t o the home producers. They
certainly are not likely to guess
against themselves, and the figures
they gave the men who made the
tariff are inserted in the bill.
If the new tariff raises prices
decidedly, and that is the effect de-
sired, the women will be the first
to find it out. The wives and
mothers generally do the purchas-
ing for the family. When they find
that their wage dollar, or their
income dollar, buys a good deal less
than it did before the republicans
fixed the tariff. there is going to
be a good deal of resentment toward
the republican party. Take all i'm
ported stuff, like French and Eng
lish cotton goods, Japanese silk,
wooden cloths, German crockery or
cutlery, and if they can get these
things at all it will be at a much
higher price. And the domestic
goods which take their place will
move Ut also to a point where they
do not fear competition. After
every republican high tariff bill
which raised prices, there was a
reaction. But at those times the
women had no votes. However,
they had a good deal of influence
on the votes of their men folk, and
the latter responded by throwing
the high tariff congressman out of
power. In our opinion, history will
repeat itself once more, but in still
more decided fashion.
The retail dealers who have to
charge more for goods that women
buy will not be slow to excuse
themselves for raising the price by
pointing out to their customers
what the tariff did by raising the
wholesale price to them. That is
only natural and to be expected,
In that way every seller becomes a
schoolmaster teaching the public
the effect of a high tariff which
destroys all chance of foreign COM
petition. \
Of course that is only one side
of the protective tariff argument.
but it is the side that comes i'm
mediately to the attention of all
buyers and consumers of goods,
and they generally take small COM
fort in the assurance that increased
activity in home production and
higher wages make up the 4apparen