Show PROTECTIONS HEAVY GUNS V The Chicago InlcrOccan asks Jfwlll our free trade friends please answer the queion the tariff Is a tax which tho consumer con-sumer pays in the form of increased price of the dutiable goods why are the Sheffield cutlers cut-lers the Welsh tinplate makers the Parisian modistes the German plush manufacturers the American importers howling in pain as they contemplate the provisions of the McKi LEY bill I The question constitutes protections heaviest artillery We take pleasure in answering it The MoKtsfcEV bill will cut off imports by cutting off American exports ex-ports Imports are the pay for exports money does not enter into the transaction at all Naturally the English French and German merchants do not like to stop trading with Americans any more than I they would like to stop trading with any I other people But the complaints of these j foreign malcontents will be dwarfed out of jjill comparison by tho just complaints of American exporters who lose moro i than the foreigners lose by having thpi i commerce stopped Ono writer has illustrated i illus-trated it in this way Au American farmer has 1000 bushels of surplus wheat wOlthl I per bushel Ho sends the wheat to Scotland Scot-land i and buys iron withit at SIO a ton When his 100 tons of iron arrive he find he must pay a tariff of 45 per cent before he I can land the iron He must sell 4 > out of the j 00 tons to pay the tariff tax on tim iron j The next time he has 1000 buMhcls of stir plus wheat tobuy Iron with he will keep back 4VJ bushels lo pay the tariff tax bud will bring over only fio tons of iron with what is left The tariff causes the Scotchman Scotch-man to lose the profit on 45 tons of iron but it causes the American to lose the 45 V tons of iron The Scotchman naturally denounces de-nounces our tariff but the American loses the most by it If the Scotchmans profit I isl on each ton of iron ho sells our tariff an iron will cause him to lose S 45 in the ascmentioned The iron being worth 10 a ton the American will have lost I50 because be-cause of our tariff laws It should therefore there-fore be understood that while the Scot has 11 certain reason to grumble at our absurd tarIff jet this complaint against the tariff is distinctively an American affair and woo wo-o not care particularly what the foreigner thinks or how ho is affected by our tariff laws It is to relievo Americans not foreigners for-eigners from this iniquitous burden that the tariff is assailed I A little further on tho same paper has the I assurance to intimate that the American consumer does not pay the tariff tax II Sugar is soldabroad at from 4 to 5 cents I a pound not foreign sugar only but tho exported ported American product Sugar is sold in this country at from S to 11 cents a tpound There is a tariff of 3 cents a pound on sugar Who pays the tariff tax of 3j < cents1 Why the American purchaser of course the foreigner has nothing to do with it Pig iron is sold abroad at an average of 10 a ton Pig iron is sold in this country t17 a ton Tho tariff on pig iron is i nearly i 17 per ton Who pays the 7 Not the foreigner surely No person on earth except ex-cept the American consumer pays this tax and how anyone could seriously question the fact is incomprehensible An American buys 100 yards of cloth In London at SI > a yard and pays another 5100 at the custom house to get the cloth admitted ad-mitted Tnls is the tariff tax Does the London merchant pay that tax If he does he makes a clear present of the cloth to the American Well the American must pay the tax then he docs so and finds he can sell the cloth at 3T0 and mako a sufficient profit Tho middle man buys it and then e sells itfor 300 Then the retailer sells it for 250 to his American customers Who pays this 250 that has been added to tho original cost of the cloth Any one cnn see that the consumers and they only pay all that is added in any way to the original cost of an article |