Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1890 — THE PRICE OF CUTLERY. [ARTICLE]

THE PRICE OF CUTLERY.

An ordinary carving knife, which sold before the McKinley law went into effect for seventy-five cents, is now sold for ninety-five cents. A better knife which bore a pre-McKinley price of $1.50, is now sola at the MoKmley price of $1.79. A fifty cent pocket knife has now become a sixty-five cent knife, but the finer knives have advanced less, by reason of a relatively lower duty on these. A" $2 knife with a shell handle has advanced in price only twenty-five cents. About 10 per cent, has been added to the price of scissors. A sample case under McKinley’s cutlery duties will explain why knives have gone up. A dozen common knives costing sixty cents must pay an advalorem duty of 50 per cent., which equals thirty cents, and a specific duty of fifty cents, total eighty cents, or an equivalent of 133 per cent, ad valorem.