WOOL ON THE FREE LIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2082, 18 January 1894, Page 19

WOOL ON THE FREE LIST.

PROTECTION STILL VICTORIOUS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

San Francisco, December 14.

After the promise and protest, the harangue and imprecation, followed by the tremendous rout of the party of Protection in the Presidential campaign of November 1892, all the worn and weary protester will receive for his pains is a modified measure of M'Einleyism. There has seldom been a fairer illustration of Horace's line—

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. The wretched abortion termed a Tariff Reform Bill, given to the world after weeks and nights of arduous labour by the House Committee on Ways and Means, has convinced most folks that the working and consuming classes of this country may as well cease protesting against trusts and syndicates and tariff robbers. The politicians are on top, and so long as [they are where they are the masses can rest happy in their present condition. A Republican is a Protectionist because ho has, through some some strange concatenation of ideas, learned to view Protection as an .American policy and Freetrade as au un-American policy. A Democrat viows Freetrade as a very good thing to beat a Republican with, but a most excellent thing to let alone after the beating is over. This time, however, something had to be done in view of the magnitude of the reaction against tariff plundering. So every Democrat, seeing he must start somewhere, at once advocated the placing of all those articles which were not manufactured in his own constituency, but in thoße of some other Democrat, either upon the free list or under a greatly reduced schedule. And it is just here where the quicksand, upon which so many fair argosies of promise have been wrecked, lies hidden. Each State has its own specially protected and delicately coddled industry, for the continuance of which it will fight tooth and nail. By all means take the duty off iron, coal, steel, or wool, cries California, but keep it upon foreign wines, raisins, and lemons. Abolish the duty upon grain bags with pleasure, says Pennsylvania, but no tinkering with the present duties upon steel rails, if you please. We agree with you that lumber should be free, cry the Southern States, but we will fight to the last ditch against repealing the duty on Bugar ; and so on through tHfe whole 44 States and Territories. Hence it is clear that the tariff reformers were, in one sense, in a quandary, but, in another sense, they were not. Their duty is, and was, so clear, so well marked out for them by the people, that equivocation and shuffling became worse than criminal. And in fairness to the Democrats I admit they honestly think, in 'producing the Wilson Bill, they have done their duty to tho country and redeemed their pledges of long, long ago. When I give a few of the duties these gentlemen propose as •'reforms," your readers will be competent to render an opinion as to the benefits the vast army of consumers are likely to derive from them, and the justice of the Democratic position.

First in point of importance, I append some articles it is propo°ed to admit free of duty on and after the Ist day of March 1894 :— All wool of sheep, hair of camel, goat, alpaca and other like animal?, wool and hair on skins, noils, yarn waste, card waste, burr waste, bags and flogs, including all waste of bags composed wholly or in part of wool, coal, coke, copper, agricultural implements, tallow and wool grease, limestone and other building stone, Manila binding twine, beef, hams, bacon, mutton, pork, and meats of oil kinds prepared 'or preserved, sulphuric acid, &c.

The sugar bounty will not be abolished at once, but it is to be allowed eight years in which to retire grumbliogly from the scenes of its past extortions. It is to be reduced by per cent, each year, and raw sugar is to be kept where it now is — on the free list. It is in clothing, however, where we can fully appreciate the meaning of a tariff for revenue only. Clothing, ready made, and articles of wearing apparel of every description, is to have an ad valorem duty of 40 per cent. ! Plushes, velvets, velveteens, &c. , 30 per cent. ! SfcockinfiS, shirts and drawers, valued at not more than 60s a dozen, 30 per cent. ! — others of a better quality, 40 per cent ! Shawls, knit fabrics, and other manufactures, 40 per cent. ; women's and children's dress goods, coat linings, &c, 40 per cent. ; cloaks, dolmans, jackets, ulsters, and other outside garments for women and children,

45 per cent, ad valorem ! The goods in the cotton schedule range from 20 to 40 per cent. ad valorem, and so on in proportion with every article we wear, and eat and drink. Your readers will doubtless ask : it these be tariff reform pro* posals, what were the duties during the dark ages of M'Kinleyism ? To which I can best reply by stating that the cost of living for a decent-sized family — say, four or five— under our present regime is so great that the Americans have long since given up the battle in despair and don't have families. You cannot clothe a family comfortably on an ordinary wage in this country, as, in addition to the duty collected by the Government, there is always a further addition put on by the importer, and again by the retailer. Competition outs no figure. Tradesmen don't compete— they combine and keep up prices. The writer has seen articles such as were bought in New Zealand and England for Is 6d per yard sold for 2s per yard over tho counter in the stores here.

However the Democrats imagine they are doing a big thing in bringing forward such a measure, and their organs — some of them — boast of its radical features : and its honest embodiment of the people's desires. Men like Henry George, and papers like the New York Sun, think- differently.. Says tho latter: — "It preserves intact the American theory of Protection, nnder the constant application of which the country has grown great and prosperous. It corrects some of the excesses and removes many of the enormities of the M'Kinloy schedules. It modifies, revises, and redistributes the benefits of Protection to domestic industries. But Protection is there in almost every line of the bill, the main and potent factor in its composition, with a new lease of life from 1893 onward. But there is no chemistry that can erase the record of 1892. Tested by the first principles of political rectitude and party honour, tho Protectionist tariff proposed , by Mr Wilson and the Democratic majority of the Committee on Ways and Means is a fraud, an infamy and insult. As years go by the wonder will increase that Democrats could be found willing to sign their names to this confession of imposture and false pretences, this acceptance of the tokens of a degraded humiliation." ' Mr Wilson, on the other band, claims be and his party have done their duty. They have adopted the principle of ad valorem as opposed to specific duties, wherever practicable, as being, of the two, the one least open to fraud, and the freeing from, taxation of those raw materials which are the b.\sis upon which manufacturers and their industries rest. It is estimated there will be a loss of 50,000,000d01, based upon last year's importations, through this measure, and which it is proposed to raise from internal taxation, possibly from incomes.

The great battle has, however, yet to be fought, and no one can say how it will end. The chief danger, I again point out, lies in the pressure which will be brought to bear upon representatives by those industries in their own State that will be detrimentally affected through the proposed reform. The trusts are already at it. Sugar and lead and whisky are alert and active. The stock of these native cancers took a big stump as soon as Wilson's bill was given out to the public, and it is not to be doubted that an industry (?) such as the sugar trust, which paid 22 per cent, upon its stock last year, is going to sit by idle and see anybody get his, or her, sugar cheaper if it can help it. Then the Democratic majority in the Senate is trail and very close, and-the interests of its members so wrapped up in many of the industries upon which they will be called to adjudicate that I would not care to place myself on record as saying that on and alter the first day of March 1894- all the promised reforms of the Democratic party will become law.