Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1910 — THE DUTY OH CATTLE [ARTICLE]

THE DUTY OH CATTLE

Why Free Hides Have Not Made Shoes Cheaper PUT MEAT ON FREE LIST All Three Industries Are Related, and Reductions Bhould Be Made on All. The Reason Why English Footwear Is Being Imported. Now that the removal of the duty on hides has not brought the expected relief to the consumer, since the price of shoes Is rising and not falling, tfie protectionists are gleefully sbouting, “I told you so!’* Senator Lodge, the mhn who Is to make an impartial investigation of the high cost of living, argued jauntily the other day in the senate that because the removal of the duty on bides has not made hides any cheaper the removal of the duty on beef would not make beef any cheaper. On the contrary, it would seem that the failure of free hides to afford relief is one of the very L-'st reasons for taking the duty off meat and off cattle too. The removal of the 15 per cent duty on hides was accompanied by a large increase in the importation of thart article, but prices did, not come down because of the increasing demand for leather for automobiles and other uses besides shoes and because of the influence of the packers, who control the supply of bides as well as of meat, and also because of the growing scarcity of cattle, both actually and relatively to population; These influences baye. up to the present, been sufficient to'offset the advantage conferred by taking off this duty. But how does the tariff on cattle and meat affect the price of hides? Just this way: Cattle are reared for their meat, and there never will be more American hides In the market than there are cattle which were reared for their meat This country Is and has been a great exporter of meat but it may be that, owing to the exhaustion of ]the cheaper lands out west on which our cattle are mainly raised, we shall be compelled to rely upon Canada. Mexico and the Argentine for a portion of our meat supply. There is a duty of 27% per cent upon live cattle. Take off that duty, and cattle would be imported when necessary and meat would be cheaper and bides would necessarily become cheaper too. The reduction of the duty has, bowever, brought one curiotus result Some

kinds of shoes are beginning to be imported here from England to relieve the present high prices. The duty on shoes, which bad been 25 per cent, was reduced to 10 per cent when tbe duty j on hides was taken off. It Is strange, \ indeed, to think that England should be sending shoes here when we are such large exporters of shoes. But by encouraging International trade we always have a safeguard aglust domestic scarcity, whether uatural or artificial. Free Raw Material Means Free TrajleYou say you would be inclined to vote for free raw material, but would continue the duty on manufactured Follow that idea but and see where it will lead you. Everything that you have to buy In order to have something to sell is raw material to you. and everything that your neighbor buys from you in order to sell Is raw material to him. although It may be a manufactured product to you If you manufacture watches the watch you sell Is Paw material to the man who has -to buy it in order to be punctual at hfir-Job. Tbe knife a butcher uses in order to cut meat Is as much raw material to him as are tbe cattle he kills, jtipt as meat Itself is raw material to the man who. by eating It, Is enabled to sell the strength of bis muscles in tbe labor market. Raw material, then, is what we have to buy, and the manufactured article is what we have to selL And as our whole Industrial life Is nothing but a system of reciprocal buying and selling it follows that there is nothing made but what is Paw material in the proper sense. Therefore “free raw material’* fully and consistently carried out means free trade. * >