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TAUIFF TKUSTS.
JLust Jloiwrt of Protected Manufact
urers.
'The protected interests have always
igaiued their end by deceiving the con-
isumers upon whom tariff taxes weigh
anost heavily :
First. They asked for protection dur
ing infancy only.
Second. They promised to the farin-
rer a home market , which has never been
established.
Third. They promised lower prices ,
but as the time came when prices
would have been lower through the in
crease in the number of competing man
ufacturing establishments , protected
from foreign competition by the tariff ,
they forced up the price of these goods to
Americans , killing domestic competition
by the establishment of trusts. The
motto of the tariff-defended trusts is
"economy of administration for us ;
cheap production for us ; low prices for
the foreigner ; high prices for the Amer
ican , and high profits for us. "
Thirty years ago there was a general
movement throughout the west in favor
of lower duties. Hardly a republican
senator or representative dared to with
stand the demands of the agricultural
regions for relief from the burdens of
tariff taxation. Among the leaders of
this republican [ movement for revenue
reform were Garfield , Allison , and Sen
ator Merrill of Vermont. The demo
cratic party , or a majority of its mem
bers , were , of course , for free trade.
The movement had every prospect of
success.
In 1871 the house passed a bill greatly
reducing rates of duty. The protected
industries became alarmed and in 1872
secured the repeal of the tax on tea and
coffee in order to reduce the revenues
of the government. Their object waste
to prevent the revenue reformers from
employing the growing surplus to point
their arguments against protection.
Having accomplished this , in the Fame
session , they substituted for the house
bill a measure reducing tariff taxes ten
per cent. This was a horizontal cut ,
precisely like that suggested by Mr.
Morrison twelve years later. It was
' scientific" when made by protection
ists in 1872. It was "unscientific" when
proposed by revenue reformers in 1884.
This ten per cent reduction was a cheat.
The old rates were restored in 1875.
Congress the Tool of Protected Industries.
This date marks the period at which
the control of tariff legislation
passed entirely into private hands , al
though private influence had been
strong since 1828. The movement began
with the wool and woolens act in 1807.
Since 1875 congress has not legislated on
the tariff ; it has simply affirmed or rat
ified the decrees of the beneficiaries of
the tariff. These people have trans
formed the government into a socialism
in which they are not merely the fav
ored class ; they constitute the only class.
The house of representatives passed the
Mills bill of 1888 , but the senate was
then republican and protectionists and
the protected interests turned the bill
into a protectioa measure. The popular
branch of congress also passed the Wil
son bill in 1894 , but the protected inter
ests transformed it in the senate through
the aid of democratic senators. In 1890
and in 1897 the protected interests
framed the laws named after McKinley
and Dingley , the managing agents on
the floor of the house.
Home-Market Delusions.
During all the years that the taxing
power of the government has been turn
ed over to the beneficiaries of the tariff
they have been promising the consumers
lower prices. First they promised to be
satisfied with a protective tariff that
would sustain their infancy , but they
have demanded riches for their middle
age , and now some of them are insisting
on sustenance in the form of direct
alms , in their decrepitude. Then they
promised the farmer a home market ;
but the fanner's crops increased at a
greater rate than the population ; as the
years went on he had a larger and larger
surplus which he was forced to sell in
London , the prices of all his crops being
fixed in the open markets of the world ;
year by year his taxes increased , and
there never has been a moment when
the promise of a home market for all
our crops has seemed likely to be real
ized. Then the protectionists promised
lower prices as a result of the holding
up of domestic industries. That prom
ise has not been kept.
During our experiment in protection
there have been times of overproduc
tion , when prices of manufactured goods
fell to bankruptcy rates. Occasionally
heretofore competition has brought
down prices for a time , but as a rule
the only reduction of prices for our pro
tected manufactured articles has been
to the foreign buyer. Our manufactur
ers have sought foreign markets for
their surplus products. Unlike the
farmers , the tariff tax on whose breadstuffs -
stuffs is a mere pretense , the manufact
urer's price at home is not fixed by the
price abroad. His price here is regulat
ed by himself and his associates en
trenched behind the tariff wall which he
has constructed through his congres
sional agency. It is possible , however ,
that in time nature would treat the
manufacturer as she had treated the
farmer and the price of his surplus
would govern. Nature takes time for
her tasks. But we are not now con
cerned with that subject. If the price
of any protected domestic products has
fallen in this country it has been against
the wish and despite the efforts of the
protected interests. They have done
all in their power to prevent the realiza
tion of the promise of lower prices ,
especially by the formation of trusts
and by the continuation of all or most
of the corporations carrying on the
business of manufacturing protected ar
ticles.
In the series of letters of which this is
one , various writers have shown how
the trusts have taxed their fellow-coun
trymen. Some trusts or combinations
do not profit by tariff taxes ; but others
do , and from the burdens imposed by
these , there is a ready method of relief.
It is only necessary to put an end to the
existing protectionist control of congress.
Let us re-examine , in a brief and general
way , some of the facts which have al
ready been sot forth in these letters.
The Tlii-Plate Trust.
The trust is in whoso
tin-plate one op
erations nearly every one is interested.
The prices of the plates affect the prices
of a large number of necessary domestic
article ? : pans , pails , etc. ; of the cans in
which articles of food are preserved , of
roofing tin , and a large number of other
useful and essential things. Several
years ago a tariff tax was imposed upon
this article for the purpose of "building
up this industry. " The tax was heavy.
The industry was created. It is now
controlled by a trust. Its mill property
forty plants can be duplicated for
$6,000,000. The total assets of the trust ,
on Mr. Byron W. Holt's calculation , at
its foundation , aggregated between $10-
000,000 and $12,000,000. The trutt paid
$86,000,000 in common and preferred
stock for the plants at least three times
their value. The "promoter" retained
$10,000,000 of the common stock for his
services. The capital of the trust is
$50,000,000. Its outstanding stock is
worth $26,000,000. It controls the whole
business of manufacturing tin plates ,
and it has closed eighty mills. Its
profits are very large. It has increased
the New York price of a box of Ameri
can tin-plate of 100 pounds , from $2.80 ,
the price in November , 1898 , when the
trust was formed , to $4 85 the price in
September , 1899. It is enabled to do
this by the tariff tax of $1.50 per box.
In September , 1899 , English tin plate
would have been landed in New York
at $8.65 per box. Adding the duty the
price would be $5.15. The trust put its
price 80 cents below this ( as high as it
could without incurring competition
from importations of the lighter weight ) ,
but on 100-lb. tin plates the consumer
paid $1.20 wholly on account of the
tariff.
Mr. Holt estimates the cost of "creat
ing" this industry since 1891 , at from
$80,000,000 to $84,000,000 to the whole
salers , and at about $100,000,000 to the
consumer. The trust , besides imposing
so great a burden on the country by
running thousands of shops , has op
pressed the laborer and the farmer. By
reason of the increased cost of cans ,
canning factories have been forced to
