70 Tariff. 



asked the government to aid and protect him in a scheme 

 that would secure to him a virtual monopoly of the fur 

 trade of America. In 1829 he addressed the following letter 

 to Senator Bentley with reference to duties imposed on ar- 

 ticles that he traded to the Indians : " It is known that none 

 of the woolen goods fit for the Indian trade such as Indian 

 blankets, strouds, and cloths of particular descriptions are 

 as yet manufactured in this country. We are therefore 

 obliged to import them from England, and it so happens 

 that those are just the articles paying the heaviest duty. 

 The English traders have theirs free of duty which enables 

 them to bring their goods sixty per cent and over cheaper 

 than we pay, and they are thereby enabled to undersell 

 us. Their furs and skins cost them a little more than half 

 what we have to pay for ours, but this is not all. They 

 are by these same means enabled to sell their furs here 

 in New York, and actually do come and undersell the 

 American traders. It is unaccountable that they should 

 be permitted to bring their furs here free of duty, while 

 we if we send any to the British Dominion are obliged to 

 pay fifteen per cent duty." 



If the duty could have been taken off the woolen goods 

 and put on the furs Mr. Astor probably would have been 

 satisfied ; but how about the other fellow ? 



The reader doubtless smiles at Mr. Astor 's inconsistency, 

 entirely oblivious of the fact that history repeats itself and 

 that we of today, sub-consciously perhaps, take the same 

 position. The furrier who worked to keep the duty at from 

 fifteen to fifty per cent, on manufactured furs cannot un- 

 derstand why the government compells him to "pay trib- 

 ute" to the sugar trust by keeping a tariff on that product 

 for the next three years ; and the man who feels that he has 

 been unfairly dealt with because the duty on wool was 

 reduced insists that he ought to have the right to buy his 

 furs where he can get them the cheapest. From all this 

 it seems as if the tariff is not even a local issue but simply 

 a question of individual profits, and that men uphold or 

 condemn the tariff legislation which from time to time 



disturbs the commercial interests of the country according 

 to its effect on their personal interests. 



