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The Commoner.
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VOLUME 9, NUMBER 2
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The Commoner.
ISSUED WEEKLY..
William J. Hhtam
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
Lorimer! Now we know why it is called the
"Sucker" state.
Tho tariff was a local issue in Hancock's time;
it is now largely a personal issue. Thus do we
progress.
Tho present style in women's headgear is a
reminder of the days of the old-fashioned chop
pingbowJ. ....
Animal hides are on the "protected" list.
Everything is , taken out of the hide of the
consumer.
It is reported that the Hoosevelt party has
secured eighty-six pelts. San Juan count or
real pelts?
The senate would save time by hitching an
enacting clause to Senator Aldrich and letting
t go at that.
Mr. Rockefeller has written a poem. Just
because he has a mint of money that man thinks
he can do anything.
The people who pay the tax seem to he about
the only ones who are unrepresented in the con
gressional tariff debate.
Perhaps that earthquake shock felt in the
central west was merely tho echoes of an Afri
can jungle interview.
By the way, now that we are importing po
tatoes perhaps some one -will kindly explain
the benefits of the tariff on potatoes.
There is every indication that the Rev Dr.
Long Is storing up trouble for himself against
the day of the Mighty Nimrod's return. '
Indiana reformers are preparing to prove,
If possible, that base ball playing is a crime.
Depends upon the position of the home team.
Statesmen who ridiculed General Hancock's
assortion that "the tariff is a local issue" owe
an apology to the memory of that distinguished
soldier.
' A good many of the Virginia democrats aro
giving Senator Daniel-the horse-laugh because
of his speech in favor of a tariff on quebracho
and the laugh is not more musical because it is
f. sort 'of chestnut horse-laugh.
I Practical Tariff Talks
Senator Cummins of Iowa says that if thero
were complete freedom of domestic trade he
would not care so much about the height to
which tho tariff wall might be raised, relying
upon competition to eventually bring down
prices. The original theory of protection was
that it shut out the foreign manufacturer, and
by stimulating tho investment of capital in
American industries prices were eventually
brought to a point where nobody was wronged.
Since tho trusts have come into being and prices
are arbitrarily fixed, this justification for a high
tariff wall is removed. Yet because the trusts
have more influence at Washington than have
the common people, the same number of brick
go into that wall, and in addition barbs are put
on top. The iron ore schedule affords an ex
cellent example.
The steel trust dominates the market largely
because of its control of-the supply of iron ore.
Eighty-five per cent of the mineral deposits
necessaTy to the steel trade are owned by the
steel trust. All steel comes from Iron ore. It
necessarily follows that whoever owns the ore
occupies a commanding position in the manufac
ture of steel. Tho house saw the point and
put iron oro on the free list. The senate put
it back at 25 cents a ton. The effect of this is
to make the United States steel corporation a
bigger trust than ever, and gives into its hand
a weapon by which it can fix prices at whatever
figure it pleases. It effectually stifles competi
tion in the matter of prices. Along the Atlantic
coast are Jocated a' number of plants independent
of the trust. Naturally they desire to secure
ore from outside. Down in the West Indies
are rich deposits of iron ore. These can be laid
down east of the Alleghanies at about the same
cost as lake transportation enables the trust to
place Lake Superior and Mesaba range ore at
its furnaces west of the Alleghanies. In the
Mediterranean is another large source, f supply.
Ships that took American grain to seaports in
that section could bring back iron ore as ballast
if there were no tariff. The grain rate was 3
cents per hundred less from Baltimore when
this was done; but the ore tariff of 40 cents a
ton was prohibitive. That source of supply is
closed, and ocean grain rates have gone up. If
there was no custom house barrier not only
would the steel trust, operating west of the
mountains, be deprived of its control of the
chief sources of supply and its independent
rivals able to get their ore where they could
buy cheapest and thus in a measure be indepen
dent in price-making, but the farmer would
benefit by reason of cheaper ocean transporta
tion made possible by the carrying of ore as a
return cargo. All of these benefits are set aside,
and for what? That the steel trust may con
tinue to dominate.
tection with the republican platform yardstick
measure, that tho tariff shall be tho difference
between wages here and abroad, with a reason
able profit to the manufacturer? Why is it
placed so high? There is but one reason, to
give the corporations that dominate that in
dustry a protection from competition that en
ables them to fix prices. There is no other
reasonable conclusion. C. Q. D.
THE TARIFF AND THE JEWELERS
Cedar Rapids, la., May 10, 1909. Editor Tho
Commoner: A large number of jewelers through
out the United States have for many years had
watch movements made for them in Switzer
land and on each movement has been engraved
the name and place of business of the dealer
and the number of jewels contained in tho
movement, namely seven jewels, eleven jewels,
fifteen jewels and seventeen jewels. Nowin ad
dition to tho fact that the Payne tariff raises
the duty on these movements, the American
watch manufacturers are trying to impress upon
'the members of the ways and means committee
the importance of compelling Swiss manufac
turers to engrave on these movements the name
of the manufacturer, tie city, the state and
the country where such movements are made,
and the number of jewels contained therein,
and all this is to be done, mind you, in the in
terest of the dear American consumer. Now tho
fact is it is done so that the American retail
jeweler can not have his own firm name placed
on these movements, he can no longer say to
his customer, here is a watch that is made for
us, our own name is on the movement, we guarr
antee this watch to give you satisfactory service,
and we are personally responsible to you, and
will see that you get what you pay for. He can
no longer sell, these movements bearing his own
name, for the only space where such name and
place of business could be engraved has been
utilized by the name and place of business of
the Swiss manufacturer. It deprives the Amer
ican retail jewelers of the right he has to profit
by the good impression goods sold from his
place of business may bring to jhis firm in tho
demand for other goods bearing his own firm
name, and it has only been in recent years that
the American watch manufacturer has been
willing to sell his product to the retailer with
out his own factory name ttamped on the move
ment, but he will do so now, very willingly, be
cause the Swiss manufacturer has forced them
to do so, and right now they reluctantly accept
an order for "O" size movements for the rea
son (not stated by them, however) that if Swiss
manufacturers can not supply them as hereto
fore, they will do so later on, at an advance in
price. (See the "nigger In the wood pile?")
And as is always the case the dear public will
pay the advance.
LUDY & TAYLOR CO.
By J. G. McMasters.
The lead schedule in the Aldrich bill excited
a very long debate in the senate. Several very
interesting facts were developed. One of these
was that the finance committee refused to let
representatives of the lead manufacturers appear
before them to give their views. Mr. Aldrich
said that he was convinced these men, because
they consume lead, aimed to tear down this
schedule, and he did not wish to hear them. The
consumer is a man whose case does not appeal
to the senator from Rhode Island. Lead is one
of the most useful of metals. Every man who
builds a house or a business block must use it,
when ho paints his house he is paying his trib
' ute to the lead industry. If he buys wire or
ammunition he also pays. There are rich de
posits of it in the United States, many thousands
of men are engaged in it. To protect them a
duty on the ore is levied. Then to protect the
market for the refined ore, a differential be
tween the ore and the metal of five-eighths of
a cent a pound is levied. This differential
means $12.50 a ton. Sworn testimony beforo
the ways and means committee of the house
was that the cost to smelt a ton Is only $8.
One of the largest manufacturers in the country
said that the paragraph was so drawn that only
two smelters could comply with it. Several
men swore that tho interests of the trade would
be well cared for -if the differential wera re
duced to two-eighths of a cent a pound. Other
testimony before that - committee -was to' the -effect
that it cost to-reduco ore into lead $15.93
a ton, and the same ton was sold for $19 38
The tariff is $30 a ton. Where is the mathema
tician who can reconcile that nmount of pro-
IN VIRGINIA
Something more than a year ago The Com
moner printed a poem entitled "In Virginia."
The author of this poem is unknown to The
Commoner. Mr. W. A. Sullenbarger of Belle
Plaine, la., set the poem to music and sent the
same to Mr. Eggleston, state superintendent of
public instruction for Virginia, expressing his
desire to present it to the schools of that state.
The Virginia Journal of 3ducation, published
is. Richmond prints, in its April number, Mr.
Sullenbarger's song. The poem "In Virginia"
follows:
The roses nowhere bloom so white, as in
Virginia,
The sunshine nowhere shines so bright, as in
Virginia,
The birds sing nowhere quite so sweet, and no
where hearts so lightly beat, - -For
heav'n and earth both seem to meet, Down
w in Virginia1, Down in Virginia.
The days are never quite so long, as in Virginia
Nor quite so 'filled with happy 'song, as in
Virginia, . . .
And when my time has come to die, just take
me back and let me lie,
Close where the James-goes rolling by, Down
in Virginia, Down in Virginia.
There nowhere is a land so fair,-.as in Virginia1,
bo full of song, o-free of care, as in Virginia,
And I believe that 'happy -land; 'theLord pre
pared for mortal man
Is built exactly onUhe plan of Old Virginia,
Of Old Virginia.
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