Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1888 — The Excessive Steel-Rail Tariff. [ARTICLE]

The Excessive Steel-Rail Tariff.

According to William Walter Phelps steel rails at the present price of $31.50 are only $3,50 above the rate at which English rails could be laid down in New York free of duty. If so, what possible reason is there for a tariff of sl7 per ton, unless it is maintained for the purpose of aiding the Steel Trust to force prices to an extortionate rate whenever activity in railroad building causes an unusual home demand? If rails can be sold at a profit in this country for $31.50, why should the tariff artificially exclude foreign competition and enable the mill bosses to obaige three or four profits in addition whenever there is a strong demand in the home market, these extra profits being charged back on the public in the form of excessive railroad charges? As Mr. Phelps figures, Euglish rails cost $24, and with a duty of sl7 per ton and transportation charges amonnting to $4 added they cannot be sold in New York for less than $45. As the New York price now is $31.50, the tariff is clearly more than double the amount needed for any justifiable protection, and the excess represents simply the extra profits which the tariff-protected steel trust Is permitted to exact whenever the market will bear squeezing. For the first nine months in 1887 a leading Chicago railroad paid $37 per ton for raiJs in Chicago and Joliet and $42 during the months of October, November and December. In September and October, 1886, it paid S3B, and in November and December $35. During January of the present year it paid S3B, and in February $34. The fluctuations show simply the proportion of the possible extra profits which the state of the home market made it practicable to charge from time to lime in the absene'e of outside competition. While American mills have been “perfectly satisfied” to fill large orders for rails at $25.50 per ton, the sl7 duty allows the bosses to take advantage of periods of active rail-road-building and force the price even as high as $45 without any risk to their extra profits from outside competition. —Chicago Iribune.