46 TARIFF DUTIES AND CONSUMERS. 



now collected on the northern frontier of the United States, that 

 " the import duty is paid by the Canada prodttcer or manufacturer, 

 and not by the American consumer /" and that " the same can be 

 said in relation to grain, and in fact of nearly all importations" of 

 Canadian products into this country. This has been a fact for 

 such a series of years that it has assumed the characteristics of 

 permanency. Here, then, we have practice at war with the Post' 's 

 theory, which sinks to the mean level of an unsupported assertion. 

 Or, take the initial proposition: " Tariff taxes do fall, must 

 fall, as a rule, upon the consumers of the taxed goods." Let us 

 consider this in relation to imports from European countries, and 

 produce one of the children of experience upon the witness-stand. 

 "Immediately before the construction of the first steel rail manu- 

 factory in this country foreign makers charged $150 per ton (equal 

 then to $225 currency) for steel rails. As American works were 

 built, foreign skilled labor introduced, home labor instructed, and 

 domestic irons, clays, ganister, and spiegel (after many expensive 

 trials) found to produce excellent rails, the price of the foreign 

 article was gradually lowered, until it now (1870) stands at less 

 than $79 per ton in gold, or $96.38 currency." So said a me- 

 morial by railroad managers to Congress asking for an increase of 

 duty> in order to protect American manufacturers of steel rails 

 against the crushing-out process of their foreign rivals in ruinously 

 reducing prices. Notwithstanding the panic and consequent de- 

 pression in railroad circles, we imported in fiscal year 1874 to the 

 amount of 292,821,945 pounds of steel rails, or only 27,261,155 

 pounds less than in fiscal year 1873, at an aggregate invoice value 

 of $9,771,175; equal to $74-75. g ld > per ton. It thus appears 

 that the competition for the sale of steel rails in the American 

 market, created by production on our own soil, and sustained by 

 the influences of tariff legislation, has resulted in cheapening prices 

 to consumers more than 50 per cent., measured by a gold standard 

 a cheapening which covers the entire duty more than twice told. 

 Had it not been for the competition undertaken and continued by 

 our home producers, under the fostering care of our tariff, foreign- 

 ers would have maintained their monopoly of our market, and no 

 abatement from the makers' price of $150, gold, per ton, might 

 have taken place. On this supposition our railroad companies, 

 within the four fiscal years ending June 30, 1874, saved an outlay 



