| Show A MUDDLED PROTECTIONIST The Tribune stated that tho tariff was higher thirty years ago than it is now and that the extra tax it imposed upon the farmers was not SI l per capita per annum for the farmers family We then quoted the tariff rate thirty years ago 1560 per cent as against CO percent per-cent today To this the organ makes the following attempt at an answer Under the tariff the reduction in cost to the consumer has been so great that the per cent sgcof the tariff has been increased Of course the per centajo has boon increased in-creased Thats the very point under discussion dis-cussion The organ had stated that the tariff was less thirty years ago than it is today NovvJt admits that the per centage that is the rate of taxation has been increased in-creased and endeavors in the following silly talk to explain away the increase which it had at first denied point blank For instance when steel rails were 3170 per ton and there was a tax en them of 530 that was a tax of nearly 30 per cent Now that they are reduced 29 and the tax to S1250 the rate is a about 50 per cent and this contemporary contem-porary uses this argument true in fact but utterly ut-terly false and misleading How an argument can be true in fact and yet utterly false is as clear as mud for observe that the whole question under dispute was merely whether as a matter of fact the tariff rate was higher thirty years ago than today or whether it is I higher to day than it was then The Tri 2jvjic in trying to maintain that it was i I c higher then than now makes this back down as to the fact itself but endeavors to maintain that the advanced tariff is a bless ing nevertheless inasmuch as the price of steel rails has declined in spite of the tariff That is quite beside the matter under dispute dis-pute Nevertheless we are willing to meet the protectionist on any ground he chooses to stand upon The price of steel rails did notfall because of the tariff but in spite of it as the following table shows Price in Price in he Year England United Difference States 1S71 S 51 SD 01 18 S 36 19 1872 6764 9343 3079 1S73 8005 10391 2306 1674 6375 85 75 1701 1875 41 28 59 75 14 97 1876 33 12 41 97 1275 1677 2920 WOS 1283 1878 25 55 42 COt 16 4S 3879 2883 4825 2137 1BSO 3433 07 CO 33 14 1881 31 53 6000 2847 18S3 31 10 57 00 25 60 This table shows plainly enough that the price of rails is higher in the United States than abroad because of the duty on rails The talk that rails fell from 5170 to 29 because be-cause of a 50 per cent tariff on them conveniently con-veniently omits the fact that the price abroad fixed the tariff bounties the home producers were able to exact Had not the foreign price fallen the home price would not have fallen The census showed that tho value of farm land in 1850 was 3271375421 In 1SCO after ten years of low tariff the value was 6645045007 The value of farms then doubled in ten years of low tariff or more exactly increased at the rate of IOU per cent yearly In 1880 aftor twenty years of protection the value of farm lands had increased to 10197090765 The value of farms had not doubled in twenty years of protection but had increased at the beggarly rate of 2X per cent searly The same authority showed that the yield of gold and silver per capita was 18 during the low tariff decade and 15 during the high tariff decade so that it was not the discovery of gold thattcaused this pros perit Here il thn TritJi n w u or When the monoy this country was doubled between 1850 and I860 this contemporary says the reason prcperty doubled was not because ol values doubling but because of low tariff Observe that the figu s of increase were as IS to 15 merely and not as two to one Nor did the money of this country double in amount between 1850 and 1S60 and during the succeeding years it has increased as much as it did during the gold years Then by a species mathematics which no person outside of a lunatic asylum could understand under-stand this contemporary goes on to state that whereas the exports of agricultural products in 1881 were 82 per cent of the tQtal exports and as in 1S39 they were but 72 per cent and as exports ex-ports pay for imports as a matter of fact tho farmers paid 26 per cent in liSt and 33 per cent in 1SSO and hence the tax is over 827 upon every farmer farm hand and dairy maidin the coun try If that is not pure lunacy then there is no occasion for lunatic asylums A New York banker imports for his house 8100000 in tapestry tapes-try rare carpets pictures stationery etc Instead In-stead of remitting the goidhe takes it and buys 120000 bushels of wheat of the farmers pays them the goldand ships the wheat to Liverpool there to be sold to pay his flebt According to this lunatic the farmers pay for the furnitures and pictures in the bankers house No they dont but they paytho tariff on articles bought with wheat The banker buys American wheat at less than Liverpool Liver-pool prices to pay for his furniture and the purchasing power of the wheat is cut down onethird because the government seizes one third of the pay for it That fixes the pay the farmers receive one third below its normal rate no matter if the wheat pJSses throulh a hnnnrpn t uu tions after leaving the farmers hands The final pay forthe wheat is what fixes the farmers pay for it Were it not for the tariff the farmers could get onethird more for the wheat they export than they get now The gold the banker pays them would purchase one third more goods than they get now for it And while he pays them merely the difference in freight between be-tween this country and Liverpool yet the government reduces the purchasing power of this gold they receive just one third They must buy manufactured goods of which the government seizes one third at the custom houses They sell wheat and corn on which there is no protection and there can be none They sell in a free and buy in a protected market It thus appears who the lunatic is Again this lunatic says the tariff has reduced the farmers exports COJOOD in eight years which is just as crazy a statement as the others The government demonetized silver which has had the effect t to reduce prices 20 percent per-cent so that the amount of wheat and cotton L has to be increased nearly or quite CO per cent to bring the same amount of money as a given amount brought in 18SO Silver was demonetized in 1873 while the figures we gave were for 1SS1 and 1SSS We need not tell our readers who is the I lunatic for as in every other case on this question the facts are against the muddled I protectionist |
