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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 16, 1909)
rm; ; V . The Commoner. VOLUME 9, NUMBER 27 4 -" v EDUCATIONAL SERIES PROTECTION'S FAVORS TO FOREIGNERS The Commoner, ISSUED WEEKLY. 15" William J. Hvah Kdllor nnd Proprietor. HICHAM) L. MkTCAI.JTS AratdntoKdltor. ClIAJlLXS W. BRTAK FuMUher. ITtlltorial Rooms find Bualno Ofllca H-20 Eouth 12th Street Kntcrcdtttthorofltomco at Lincoln, Nob., as second-clan innttor One Year- - -' - S1.CO fcix Mentha .... i CI n If ol live or more. TfrYinr .... .V Three Moulin- -thiclc Copy - - - ainilcCojJiiFroo. I oicls" 1'otliipc 12 Crnti-Kxtrn smiSCRIl'TIONS can bo sent direct to Tho 'Com moner. Thoy can also bo Bent through nowwaperj which havo advcrtlsod a clubbing rato, or throusja local agents, whoro nub-aRontfl havo been appoint ed. All remittances ohould bo sent by V"0"1 monoy order, oxpress order, or by bank draft on Now York or Chicago. Do not send individual chocks, stamps or monoy. DISCONTINUANCES It Is found that a '? majority of our subscribers prefer not to nav their subncrlptions interrupted and their mes broken in caao thoy fail to remit beforo PfV3j It is theroforo ansumed that continuance is aesirea unless subscribers order discontinuance, ttner whon subscribing or at any time durlnff the year. Presentation Copies: Many persons subscribe for friends, intending that tho paper shall stop at Vhm ond of tho year. If instructions aro given to that effect they will receive attention at the props tlmo. RENEWALS The date on your wrapper shows tho tlmo to which your subscription is paid. Thus January II, 08. means that payment has been re ceived to and including tho last issue of January. 1808. Two weoks are roqulrod after monoy has been received before the date on wrappor can be changed. CIIANGID OF ADDRESS Subscribers requostlnjc a change of address must givo OLD as well as NEW address, ADVERTISING Rates furnished upon applica tion. BY JAMES G. PARSONS Address all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nob. havo been on their feet as ono man in opposi tion if they had known that such a plank was In tho proposed platform; yet there was no opposition. Jt wob not known to any of tho delegation that such plank was in the platform. Also delegates from Lake, Cook, Itaska, Aitkin, Millo Lac, Crow Wing, Beltrami, Becker and other counties would certainly have objected. Vory secretly, indeed, must this plank havo boon adopted. Personally I had been so stren uously engaged in an endeavor to secure an instructed delegation to Denver for you that I was persona non grata to the other element and was not in tho convention at all. But I know that the delegates who were there from St. Louis County would havo raised the roof before they would havo, knowingly, allowed such a plank to havo boon adopted. A plank so adopted is binding on no ono unless on the one who secret ly put it in. Certainly, if I were in office as a democrat in Minnesota I would not consider myself bound by it. As to the veto. Govornor Johnson is entitled to all praise for his veto of this bill embodying this vicious and unjust method of taxation. On tho ground of its discrimination between tho sections, of the state the governor was justified in vetoing it. It would have proved to be a veritable apple of sectional discord and ill feel ing. I look upon tho act of the governor in votoing this bill as patriotic, clear-headed, cour ageous and statesmanlike. You know how many of us hero are your friends. You know how loyal your Duluth friends have always been. All of those friends of yours here stand as one man back of tho governor's veto and in opposi- tion to this tonnage tax bill. In response to your Invitation, I have said what I think of tho tonnage tax bill and its veto. ALFRED JAQUES. " HERE IS THE RECORD Democratic Platform Wo favor an lncomo m tax as part of our revenue system, and we urge tho submission of a constitutional amendment specifically authorizing congress to levy and col lect tax upon individual and corporate incomes, to the end that wealth may bear its proportion ' ato share of tho burdens of the federal govern ment. Republican Platform Silent. Mr. Taft Criticised democratic plank and said: "In my judgment an amendment to the constitution for an income tax is not necessary." Mr. Bryan Fought for it since ho has been in public life. "jln 1909 the United States penate Adopts In SpnVe tax araendAieut by u.rianlijiQus'vjOte.- TJie hpusp 'adopted by 317 yeas' tql4J rio ;;. Beginning of tho Practice of Selling Cheaper Abroad It has been very well known for a number of years, that tho "protected" American manu facturers have been selling their products at much lower prices to foreigners than to their fellow-citizens. Just when this practice began it is not easy to say. Instances of it began to appear in the eighties. Since 1890 it has grown with the growth of our export trade in manufac tured products. It has Increased in extent and degree with the increase in tariff rates, and un der the McKinley and Dingley tariffs it has come to be the recognized practice of American man ufacturers 0 sell for export at one set of prices necessarily low enough to get the trade in for-, eign markets, and in the home market at another set of prices, kept as high as the tariff, with the combinations and agreements fostered by it, will permit or the traffic will bear. First Knowledge of Lower Export Prices The knowledge of this discrimination in favor of the foreign consumers was long a common place among manufacturers and business men before it became known among the general pub lic. The first knowledge of it came to the public with the shock of a rudo surprise. The system of "protection" had been widely and loudly de fended by the claim that It really would, ulti mately, benefit the consumer by fostering in dustries which, when firmly established, would be able to and would make the prices of their products as low as the foreign prices and even lower. For tho sake of this great consumma tion the tariff was to be maintained at a good high rate, and the millions of American con sumers were to be patient in continuing to pay very high prices for their materials of life and labor. For the promised consummation the peo ple have been waiting long and anxiously. It has been maddening to them to see the tariff favored Industries becoming steadily ever great er and more dominant, and then not reduced prices for the American people, who have paid untold millions to make extravagant profits for the favored ones, but reduced prices for the for eigners, who have been supposed to be our dreaded industrial rivals, and the same and still higher monopoly prices for the good arid kind home folks who have borne the cost of the scheme. Tho Tariff Reform Committee's Pamphlet of 1890 Probably the first comprehensive demonstra tion of the systematic price discriminations by American manufacturers to the advantago of foreign buyers, was made by the tariff reform committee in 1890 by the publication of an illustrated pamphlet entitled "Protection's Home Market," wnich contained a great many facts as to the exact differences between export and domestic prices of manufactured goods, obtained from manufacturers and export agencies and publications. It also quoted statements about the extent of the practice from such authorita tive trade journals as The American Machinist, and the Engineering and Mining Journal. This pamphlet was widely circulated and proved very effective in enlightening the public as to what was going on. It was met by a general denial from the leading republicans that lower prices were made for export in other than rare and exceptional circumstances. Denial, Then Admission and Warning This denial by the republicans was kept up until about 1900. At that time trusts were being formed on every hand and domestic prices were rapidly rising, while more and more goods were being sold abroad at lower prices. Presi dent McKinley and others of his administration apparently feared an attack by the domestic consumers upon the protective system, arising from these conditions, and in August, 1900, an official report appeared which contained a re markable admission of the facts and a distinct warning to iron and Bteel manufacturers. This was the "Report of tho Bureau of Statistics on Commerce and Finance." Among others, it made this plain statement: "The progress of work on shipbuilding in tho United States has likewise been retarded, be cause makers of steel materials required a high er price from the American consumers than they did from the foreign consumers for substantially similar products. Of course, American export ers have to get foreign contracts in competition with foreign plato makers, who are excluded from our domestic market. In. addition to this, American export plate makers are interested in preventing the establishment of plate manufac turing in their customer nations abroad, and to that end bid low enough to discourage foreign nations from entering the field for ( producing their own plate at home. The progress of do mestic manufactures of iron and steel goods may likewise be handicapped by the sale of iron and steel in their manufactured state at so much lower a price to foreigners than to domestic consumers as to keep the American competitor out of foreign markets generally. The natural limit to such a policy of maintaining a higher level of prices for these materials at home than abroad is found in the restriction of domestic consumption and the import duty. If restric tion of consumption at home does not operate to prevent the short-sighted policy of discrimina tion against domestic development of manufac turing industries, the other contingency is more or less sure to arise, namely, the demand for the reduction of- the tariff on unfinished iron and steel, In order to equalize the opportunity of makers of finished products in foreign markets." And the same report also said: "Of the two policies open to iron and steel makers, the far-sighted one of keeping the do mestic and foreign markets as near-as possible on a par in the price of these materials of man ufacture seems by far the wiser one to follow, both in the interest of a steadier course of prices, which means steadier consumption, and on account of the competition of manufacturers of finished goods with foreign manufacturers in the neutral markets of tho world. "The other policy of maintaining prices to manufacturers at the highest level at home leaves little margin for experiment in seeking new markets and restricts J;he application of iron and steel to additional uses at home. The depressing effects of an agitation for tariff re vision to remedy this inequality are sure to cause a far greater business loss, not only to the country as a whole, but to the producers of iron and steel themselves, than is to be gained by selling at low prices abroad, which, they can not help, and at high prices at home, which they can help. "Nor can the home market price be sustained beyond certain limits by export sales. Certain American manufacturers of steel materials tried this policy up to April, 1900. It resulted in a very positive shrinkage In domestic consumption at the then high rates. Farmers had ceased to purchase barbed wire for wire fences. Retail hardware dealers had complained for months of diminished business in nails and wire. Job bers had gotten in the way of doing a hand-to-mouth business on prices that had advanced from $1.35 to $3.20 in the course of a year. Hence the reduction of $1 in April, 1900, be came a' necessity in order to keep the mills in operation. "If steel rails, for example, sell at Pittsburg for $35" per ton for months in succession for homo consumption, while the foreign consumer is purchasing them for $22 to $24 per ton, the domestic market is sure to order no more than It is obliged to have for the time being." Charles M. Schwab's Candid Admission But these statements had no practical effect upon the Iron and steel manufacturers. Forth with there was organized the greatest of all tho trusts, the United States Steel corporation. Its first president, Charles M. Schwab, in testify ing before the industrial commission on May 11, 1901, candidly stated that iron arid. steel pro ducts were .regularly sold at lower prices for export than for homo consumption., and (t!nat materials to go into the making of goods'tfor ., t ul n i . 'A I J'VJ PSff! TywianiMMJMmwtw &Ukijs.&u&mJ&- tt' .ariJL i WT fflflWrM