Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1908 — H. E. MILES ON TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

H. E. MILES ON TARIFF.

1 ■■ •' Continued From Wednesday’s Issue. "Dicker” With Sugar Trust. The following quotations are taken from the "Payne’’ pamphlet: “The entire cost of converting beets into sugar, ‘including the cost of the beets and all other material used tn the operation, together with the cost of all labor involved,’ is only 46% per cent of the wholesale price of the sugar. (Census 1900, Vol. 6, part 2, page 495).. The Tariff is 75 per cent of the wholesale price or nearly double the cost. The average wholesale price per pound of sugar in Great Britain, in 1905, was 2.65 cents. In New York it was 5.26 cents, or nearly dou-. ble. A great refiner tells me the cost of sugar from sugar cane is about the same as from beets.” “‘No,’ said Mr. Payne, ‘when my Committee makes a Tariff, we must get our information “at first ha-and.” ’ Very rhetorical and brave ft sounded. His ‘first ha-and* dicker with the Sugar Trust has cost the people of the United States two hundred million dollars tn the past ten years.” Standard Oil “Joker." “The fisherman, who risks bls life in the Arctic for the blubber of the whale, and some forty other makers of oil, are on the free list, with no saving clause, but out great public servant. Mr. Payne, with bls stand-pat friends, put into the present Tariff a joker giving no consideration to any oil but petroleum, and securing to the petroleum interest only, among all the oils, the protection named (100 to 200 per cent).” “The petroleum joker of Mr. Payne and his stand-pat friends, has cost the country another two hundred million dollars, Government investigatlonsbowing that the American petroleum is sold in foreign markets for 30 to 50 per cent below the price charged to domestic consumers.” Steel Tribute In Ten Years. “Out of Mr. Payne’s clumsy ‘first ha-and’ the Steel people have taken in the last ten years from $300,000,000 to $500,000,000 of the people's moneys" Trusts In Other Countries. “‘But,’ says Mr. Payne, ‘there are trusts in all countries, Specially in Germany and in Free Trade England.’ Mr. Payne seems not to know that a trust in England must be as good in fact as American trusts are in their prospectuses. They must make their money by their economies. They must sell at the lowest prices that obtain anywhere in the world. If they get above the lowest'international price, foreign competition immediately checks their advance. In Germany, trusts do as in this country, they add all that they can to the price, and take advantage of protection, as of all other opportunities. “The price of steel to the German consumer is about the same as in this country, nnd for the same reason—a trust. On steel plates used in ship building, however, the price in Ger many Is as low as anywhere in the world, even in Free-trade England and why? Because these plates are or the free list and the German trust must make the international and low eat price, because of the open market.” Lawsuits and Robbery. “They (Dingley and bis associates) began wrong by taking classifications more than a generation old, very inapplicable to their time, having neither knowledge nor time to consider that important phase of the subject at all adequately, and consequently we have had 300,009 lawsuits on classifications and appraisals, nine-tenths of which might have been avoided.” “This silly framework of antiquated classifications was, however, the least of the sins. The enormity of the major misdeeds is illustrated by the few disclosures Mr. Payne, in part, makes -the robbery of the public, as the Supreme Court defines it. of a hf If billion dollars per year.” What the Supreme Court Bays. “The moral side of this issue will not down. No one can sj»eak of it without regret and unhappiness. It Is a pleasure to use the clear and sober language of that most august of human tribunals, the Supreme Court of the United States: “‘To lay with one hand the power of the Government on the property of the citizen, and with the other to bestow it upon favored individuals to aid private enterprise and build up private fortunes. Is none the less robbery be cause it is done under the forms of law and Is called taxation.*”

Tariff Causes Tuberculosis. It is said by experts that 138.000 of our people die every year from consumption, costing the nation in cash $1,000,000,000 annually, and that 5,000. ■ 000 persons now living in the United States will die of this disease unless something is done about it. What should be done? Hygienic precautions and improved hospital treat-' ment are all right. But the thing that would help most is the removal of the brutal tariff, averaging 100 per cent and upward, on woolen clothing and underwear. Pure and wholesome woolen clothing, especially woolen undergarments so essential to health in this climate, are an unattainable luxury to many millions of our people. In Eu rope they cost less than half what the woolen trust demands from us.