PROTECTIVE TARIFFS AND PRICES. 



That increased cost in production is not something peculiar to 

 our Protective system is proved by the fact that cost in produc- 

 tion of iron has largely augmented, in recent years, in Free Trade 

 England, where there is no duty whatever on the imports of 

 iron. For example, we imported from England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland, in 1860, 157,602,032 pounds of pig iron, invoiced at 

 $989,279 in the ports of departure. Those figures give an average 

 invoice price of $14.06 per ton. In 1874 we imported from the 

 same places 164,355,980 pounds of pig iron, invoiced at $2,386,726, 

 equal to an average of $32.53 per ton. Here we see that the cur- 

 rent price in the British market has increased 131^ percent., and 

 that, too, under a system of entire Free Trade in iron. According 

 to the process of reasoning employed by the Chicago Tribune, the 

 only logical inference is that such great increase in price is wholly 

 due to England's Free Trade policy. The corollary, by this method 

 of drawing conclusions, is that, as the opposite system must pro- 

 duce opposite effects, the policy of Protection to home industry 

 must diminish the prices of manufactured articles, pig iron among 

 the rest. Thus is the Tribune entangled in the web of its own 

 sophistry. 



We wish to notice one more phase of the subject. In the Pat- 

 erson Daily Press, April 14, 1875, we ^ ll( ^ tne interesting and in- 

 structive statement which follows: 



The Phoenix Mill, in fact, is one of the most wonderful of the many wonderful 

 developments that have attended the progress of the silk industry in America, 

 which has been so marvelous that we suppose nine out of ten cultivated Ameri- 

 cans even yet do not know, and can hardly be made to believe without the evi- 

 dence of their own eyes, that silks as perfect in dye and texture as are made any- 

 where in the world are now produced extensively in Paterson. Not many per- 

 sons out of the trade know, either, that in many branches the American silks 

 have driven the foreign fabrics out of the market, and of the latter scarcely any 

 are now imported. This is notably the case with ribbons, and silks for ladies' 

 kerchiefs, ties, bows, scarfs, and trimmings. One of the reasons of this is 

 that the American manufacturers have wisely aimed at independence in all things, 

 and do not depend upon the old countries now even for their patterns. The time 

 was when the American market only received the " strippings," so to speak, of the 

 foreign market. When London and Paris and other European markets were 

 supplied with a favorite style of goods, what was left was sent to America, and 

 thus became a stale thing by the time it got here. Now most of our American 

 mills like the Messrs. Tilt keep their own designers, cut their own cards for 

 Jacquard patterns, and are thus able to meet the demands of the market promptly, 

 and to keep step with fashion in all her capricious and rapid movements. 



