62 The Tariff and the Fanner. 



be paid Uncle Sam. Dress goods, women's and chil- 

 dren's, imported to tlie value of $7,384,463.72, paid duties 

 of $7,634,757.65, or over 103%. 



Now, considering these duties in the light of a tax — 

 one of the ways of obtaining revenue for the support of 

 the United States government — how do the charges com- 

 pare with common rates of taxation? In the State of 

 Massachusetts, where tax on property for state, county 

 and town or city purposes is but $8 or $10 a thousand, 

 the rate is thought to be quite low, but when this rate 

 rises to $20 a thousand — 2% — it is regarded as oppres- 

 sively high. The tax payers strongly object to such an 

 exorbitant tax. And well thev mav when the usual rate 

 of interest is but 5% or less, for nearly half the income 

 is taken by the tax collector. Is it strange that the peo- 

 ple murmur when so large a part of their living is swept 

 away ] What, then, shall be said of revenue taxes aver- 

 aging 50 7t of value! 



Again, in home competition, other things being equal, 

 a manufacturer who is at a disadvantage of 10% would be 

 regarded as fearfully handicapped, and, unless profits in 

 that line were large, a few years would bring bankruptcy 

 or retirement. What, then, must be the effect on foreign 

 competition subject to a disadvantage of 507c on the aver- 

 age, with many exceptional cases where rates of duties 

 rose from 80 to 100%? The effect has been that while 

 there has been an increase in value of manufactured 

 products in the United States of 200% in the thirty years, 

 1870-1900, the increase in imports of "articles man- 

 ufactured ready for consumption" from period 1870-74 

 to period 1900-04 has been only 11% — an annual average 

 gain that is ahnost imperceptible. The trade in finished 

 products has been well-nigh strangled by the strong hand 



