Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1910 — THE TARIFF ON HOSIERY. [ARTICLE]

THE TARIFF ON HOSIERY.

It* Result Is Cheapened Material to Meet Import Tax. Mr. Thomas H. Norton, our consul at Chemnitz, Is evidently the right man In the right place. He collects all possible Information about the manufacture of hosiery at his official post and sends it to the United States for our enlightenment. Under the “revision of the tariff,” according to the New York Press, an Increased duty, of 80 per cent is put on hose and hilt hose which retailed In the United States for 25 cents per pair. Now, 25 cents for a pair of socks has become as much a standard price as a nickel for a car fare. The retailers could not change the price If they would. What was to be done? The United States government under the Dingley law put a duty of 65 cents per dozen oh socks which cost fl per dozen In Germany; the Payne bill makes them pay an additional 20 cents, bringing the duty up to within 15 cents of as much as .lt costs to make the socks, including cost of material. In other words, every one who buys these socks, and in spite of the almost prohibitive duty an enormous quantity Is imported, pays the different parties as follows: Cents. Price at Chemnitz, per pair 8 Tariff 7 Jobbers' profit, freight * Total .................................... 19 This Is the price the retailer pays. All this is simple enough. But when Mr. Norton starts to explain what is the result of the increase in duties he displays a master band. It obviously will not do to shout that the American consumer Is Injured. He therefore shows that the Chemnitz manufacturer and the American Importer come together and agree to reduce their profits In order to be able to retain their market. incidentally they will have cut wages and so send more immigrants into the United States to bring down the standard of American living. Even all this is not enough, however, to make up for the additional 20 cents per dozen duty. So they decide to modify the material somewhat.' It is true, the consul says, that we will get “virtually" the same product as before for the same price, only the government will get an extra 20 cents per dozen duty. There is much virtue in the word virtually. We have usually been able to send our socks to the laundry twice before discarding them. Hereafter we’ll send them a time and a half. One grain of comfort, however, Is to be extracted from the article, although the editor does not seem to be able to see the humor of the suggestion. The consul deciares It is lhe prevailing opinion In Chemnitz that our manufacturers will be able to offer a better quality of wares than their foreign competitors and that thus the business will go to the home industries. Seeing that we now give the American manufacturer a protective duty equal to the whole cost of the stocking in Germany and yet the German manufacturer can send his goods to us, this seems a likely story. If 85 cents duty on a dollar a dozen stockings Is not adequate to encourage home Industry, to what heights must we raise it? Is there no such thing as fair play tn business? Hereafter when our toes appear through our socks after a single wearing let us put the responsibility not on the manufacturer, who la trying to give us all he can for what he gets, but on the tariff which robe him and us of the fair return for our labor. The Payne bill is like our modern cheap sock—it is already wearing out at the toe, and it will soon be relegated to the rag bag. JOHN J. MURPHY.