Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/362

340 as lawns, laces, embroideries, the duty is increased. On cotton plushes it is made very high indeed; and on cotton stockings, an article of which the importation in large quantities has continued, a complicated system is adopted, not unlike that adopted on woollen goods. The old duty upon cotton stockings had been 40 per cent.; in its place comes the following system:—

If the value is under 60 cents a dozen, the duty is 20 cents per dozen, plus 20 per cent. If the value is between 60 cents and $2.00 a dozen, the duty is 50 cents per dozen, plus 30 per cent. If the value is between $2.00 and $4.00 a dozen, the duty is 75 cents per dozen, plus 40 per cent. If the value is over $4'00 a dozen, the duty is $1.00 per dozen, plus 40 per cent.

In this case the raw material, cotton, is even cheaper in the United States than in foreign countries, and the whole of the complicated and heavy duty is effective protection. It is an almost desperate effort to secure the manufacture of the article within the United States.

On linen goods, of which only the coarsest qualities are now made in the United States, the finer qualities being obtained only by importation, the duty goes up from 35 to 50 per cent. Linen laces and embroideries are advanced from 30 to 60 per cent. On silk goods, the manufacture of which, under the stimulus of the protective duties of the last thirty years, has reached a very large development in the United States, the general duty remains as it was before, at 50 per cent. ad valorem. But silk laces, embroideries and ready-made garments go up from 50 to 60 per cent. and silk plushes are subject to a very heavy graded specific duty. Indeed, plush goods of all sorts, whether manufactured of cotton, wool, or silk, have been singled out for especially heavy duties, their production being as yet inconsiderable in the United States, and their importation very large.

Fifteen years ago, even ten years ago, the duties upon iron would have been considered the most important part of the protective system. But in recent years the situation of the iron manufacture in the United States has changed in an extraordinary way. Enormous beds of the richest iron ore have been discovered in the Central-Northern part of the country, along the shores of Lake Superior, and cheap communication by water and rail has brought this iron ore into easy communication with the great beds of coal in the heart of the country, in Ohio, Illinois and