Truth About Exports

The Reform club's experts, i:i circulating slatnders against American manufacturera, nre merely doing üie work of the foreign mili owners, who expect somo return from their conti ibutions. Free-trade newspapei-s, lacking honest argurnent, reproduce in all their bald untruthfulness tho sensational statements about export discounts, and Democratie senators father the calumnies by having them inserted in The Congressional Record. These statements aro maliciously dishonest and misleading. When Senator . Vest, nssnining their truth, says: "Forty-fivo per cent. is put upon agricultural implements for the purpose of protecting the manufacturer, and I say that it has protected the manufacturer so effectively that he is now able to go into the unprotected markets of the world and sell for one-half to the foreign consumer or user of agricultural implements that he sells to the American farmer," he must know thathe is slandering his f ello w citizens. He has undoubtedly read the statement of The Mail and Export Journal- the best authority on tho subject. "The truth of the matter is just this: The quotations named, as taken from the foreign prico current, are for the Wholesale or jobbing trade, and not for the foreign consumer, the latter being required to pay as much for the goods which he buys from the dealer in his own country as the latter deerns sufiïcient to reimburso him for the cost of importation, vrith his profit added." He knows perfectly well that the price currents of all sorts of hardware and agricultural implements issued for tho trade in the United States give prices which are subject to largo trade discounts, running from 10 to 75 or even 90 per cent. For the senator to go on from day to day repeating statements and drawing inferences respecting American manufacturers, and to their prejudice, which he knows to be false, is, we submit, unworthy of his position and cannot fail in the end to detract from his reputation for common honesty. It is dishonest in Mr. Vest to attempt to distort into robbery the refusal of American manuf acturers to sell agricultural implements to farmers at wholesale rates when he knoivs that the same rule obtains in every other industry, whether protected or unprotected. The marmfacturcr does not profit by listing plows at the retail price while selling them with i discount to the dealer. The well known effect is that he sells almost no plows at the retail price. The trade is thrown into the hands of the middleuian, and the manuf acturer refuses to undersell him. If there is any injustice in this it has existed in trade from time immemorial, and has nothing to do with tariffs. There is no "robbery" about it. Senator Vest blunders in assuming that the export journals circuíate among the farmers of South America and advertise to supply them with agricultural implements at a lower price than charged American farmers. The fact is that farmers rarely, if ever, see such papers. The Mail and Export Journal and The Australasian circuíate almost exclusively among large purcliasers, and The Engineering and Mining Journal contains little, as its name indicates, that would interest farmers. A true index of the class to which the readers of any paper belong is its advertising list, and that of The Engineering and Mining Journal shows that its agricultural readers are few indeed. The issue of Aug. 30, for example, has nearly 400 advertisers of at least 100 different classes of goods or services, and not one of thein offers agricultural implements. This paper knows that it is quite safe in asserting that "any foreign subscriber" can buy at the low rates advertised, for it knows how few of them are farmers. In this connection the f ollowing, showing the export discounts on freights given by English roads, will be interesting: Export discounts are given by the English roads in many instances, and where snch roductions in freight charges are made on English roads they are met by Germán, Belsrium and Holland roads. except as hereafter mentioned: Coal - Average British reduction in freightwhen exported,, 76 per cent., and there is a note that "There is no German or Dutch seaport so near the mines." The Belgiums make a reduction. In kardware, cutlery, saws and tools export rates only are given in all four countries. Cotton Goods- Average British reduction on export, 29 per cent. ; none in the other countries. Woolen, Worsted and Stuff Goods - Average British reduction on export, 18 per cent. ; none in the other three countries. Earthenware and China - Average British reduction on export, 40 per cent. There is also a reduction in the other three countries. General Machinery- Average British reduction on export, C7 per cent. Thore is also a reduction on Belgian exports; none in the other countries. Agricultura! Implemeiits (Iron)- Average British reduction on export, 20 per cent. The Germana and Dutch also give a reduction on export; the Belgians do not. All but about 14 per cent, in length of the Germán lines and 27 per cent, of the Belgian roads were, at the date of the report, worked by their respective governments. Both the state owned and the private roads in Holland are worked by private companies; those belonging to the state under an agreement. The reductions in freight charges on export goods in the case of English roads are made obligatory by their charters In many, if not in all, cases. #