COMMON SENSE AND THE TARIFF QUESTION 451 



Now, what has been the effect of the tax of $4,000,000 on the 

 price of iron and steel in this country ? Various computations 

 have been made, the latest by Mr. A. B. Farquhar, of York, Pa., 

 the largest exporter of agricultural .machinery in this country, 

 and perhaps one of the largest manufacturers of agricultural ma- 

 chinery in the world. He computes the actual difference in cost 

 of iron and steel to the consumers in this country during the last 

 ten years at about $700,000,000 or $70,000,000 a year. David A. 

 Wells, making very large corrections for contingencies, estimates 

 the difference in the cost of these metals to the consumers of 

 this country, as compared to the consumers of Great Britain, at 

 $560,000,000 for ten years, giving a little different period of time. 

 My own computations, which have been made with the utmost 

 care and which are based wholly upon the figures given by the 

 Iron and Steel Association of this country, and of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute of Great Britain, make the excess of price paid for 

 iron and steel in this country as compared to others, in the years 

 1880 to 1889 inclusive, not less than $500,000,000 and probably 

 $800,000,000. I may add that the effect of the tariff upon iron and 

 steel has been much greater than in respect to other articles. This 

 country now consumes thirty-five to forty per cent of the entire 

 product of iron made in the civilized world. Our consumption 

 at the present time is greater than the largest product of Great 

 Britain in any year. No other country could possibly supply us. 

 No other country could have supplied us for many years. But by 

 the partial obstruction to our demand upon Great Britain and 

 Germany, due to our own tariff, the price of iron and steel in 

 Europe has been very greatly depressed. The tendency through- 

 out the world has been to a rapid reduction both in cost and in 

 the price of these metals, due to the application of revolutionary 

 inventions. But the reduction in price in gold has been much 

 greater in Great Britain than it has been in this country : conse- 

 quently, by our own act we have protected the ship-builders, the 

 machinists, and the tool-makers of other countries, while prevent- 

 ing the extension of these arts in our own country ; even failing 

 to retain our home market. 



We import a considerable proportion of the products of iron 

 and steel that we consume, sometimes in the form of railway-bars, 

 yet more in the form of hardware, tools, and machinery. A first- 

 class textile factory can not be equipped in this country without 

 resort to the machine-shops of Great Britain for a very consider- 

 able part of the most necessary machinery. 



Again, the burden of a tax upon crude materials is to be 

 gauged, not by its ratio to the value of the product into which it 

 might enter and does enter as a component material, but in ratio 

 both to wages and profits in the arts in which it is needed. If we 



