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Show Our "Competitive" "Compet-itive" Tariff Either tho free traders knew, or I didn't know, "what they were about when they undertook to framo a "competitive" tariff. They proceeded proceed-ed on tho assumption that ruoro freedom free-dom ot competition was needed Iii order to break' down American prices, and profits; or, as they put It, to prevent tho oxtortlons of trusts nndj monopols. Apparently thero aro somo mistake In tholr theories and , calculations. Tho Saturday Evening Post, ot Philadelphia says: In tho first eight months of tho now tariff act, Imports of completed manufactures Increased by 2t,000,-000, 2t,000,-000, or less than 9 per cent, this Is at tho rato ot $3,000,00 a month und certainly amounts to a small fiactlon of 1 per cont ot our total consumption ot manufactures. This Is confessedly a compctltlvo tariff. Tho purpose of Its framers was to reduce duties so that, when-over when-over Amorlcan prices wore unreasonably unreason-ably high, foreign manufacturers would have a fair chance to come in and compote for the American market. mar-ket. There is no longer a Cblncso wnll In tholr way at most thero Is only a well trimmed hedge, which an agile forolgnor could hop over it our prices were far out ot line with those abroad. Tho party which framod this competitive com-petitive tariff professes to believe that wo are pillaged by exlortlomUo trusts. Either tho tariff Is wrong of tho theory of universal and outrageous out-rageous trust exploitation Is wiong. The smnll Incrcaso In Imports of manufactured nrtlcloi lendi power fully to contradict tlio 'notion that predatory combinations wero making f unreasonable prices the rulo In America. Am-erica. As a matter ot, fact thero was no such thing as trust extortion or unfair un-fair monopoly prices tipd profits. The free traders, in making their competitive com-petitive tariff, wero legislating to correct a condition that did not exist. ex-ist. In no country In the world was. industrial competltjn keener or prof-It prof-It margins c'.ver than In the United States. What tho free traders actu ally did was to fix It so that even those small "profit margins' could be wiped out and the business turned over to foreigners. It has proved to bo a competitive tariff, all right. Foreigners are able to get better prices and mako more profits than thoy could under a pro tective tariff, and nt tho same time undersell their American competitors In tho American, market. No matter whether competltlvo Imports Increased Increas-ed 0 per cent, or 00 por cent to tho extent that thoy did Increaso they displaced much moro than their du-tiablo du-tiablo value of equivalent goods that would otherwlso havo been produced hero. They robbed American labor and Industry. |
