Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1890 — SAYS WE ARE FOOLS. [ARTICLE]

SAYS WE ARE FOOLS.

CONFESSION OF OUR STEELRAIL BARON. “Trlumpliant Democracy” in Scotland— What He Thinks of Americans—An Interesting: Tariff Lesson. Mr. Andrew Carnegie, our protected millionaire stool rail baron, has been talking to the Scotch and tolling them what public-spirited and energetic people we Americans are. On Sept. 8 he spoke at Dundee, Scotland, and said among other things: “In the republic there ia. a feeling that every man lives, first for tho state, and second for himself, and if he doesn’t feel so his fellow citizens have mo objection to lead him to the right path. A man who would stand up and attempt to obstruct a great public improvement—oh! lie would not be tolerated. Public sentiment would condemn him. The way of the would-be extortioner is hard in America." A - Let us try that by one example. We have a duty of sl7 a ton on steel rails. It has been recently ascertained through official sources that the total cost of a ton of steel rails in this country is $26.24. During tho first half of this year tho average selling price was somewhat above $34 a ton —let us say a profit of $8 a ton. Now, it was stated in a high protectionist organ in July that Mr. Andrew Carnegie and his several firms had made during tho first six months of the year about 325,000 tons of steel rails. The profits are thus seeu to have been $2,600,000. That sum Is no* at present so much duo to the high duty as it would have been some years ago, for prices in England ranged in the first half of this year from $lO to sl6 higher than two years ago, owing to temperary conditions now passing away; prices in the United States being higher also than two years ago. But the $2,600,000 profits of Carnegie and his associates for six months in 1890 were only partially a tariff profit. It is true that the great gains which have made him a fifty-five millionaire were duo in large part to the high duty on steel rails. Anybody who looks at the prices in Great Britain and the United States for the past ten or twenty years can see that as plain as day. A table of these prices has been prepared by tho protectionists themselves., This table shows a difference of $33.08 a ton in 1880 in favor of the English; in 1885, a difference of $4.39; in 1887, however, this difference had again risen to $18.3$ a ton. The precise difference in the cost of steel rails by reason of tho tariff lias been accurately and carefully estimated by A. Wells, the foremost statistician of America. Ho estimates that the additional cost to this country of steel during the ten years from 1878 to 1888 in ponsequence of the tariff was $140,000,000. If it had not 'been for the tariff precisely tho same would have been saved to our railroads, and thereby to some extent saved to tho people in cheaper freight and passenger rates. If railroads had been permitted to buy their rails at the normal price, and to save thereby $140,000,000, would not this have been “a great public improvement?” “A man who would stand up and attempt to obstruct a great public improvement. ” Why, that is Carnegie himself! And yet he is “tolerated;” public sentiment does not condemn him; and the way of the tariff extortioner is not hard. What Carnegie thinks of us, in view of our high tariff folly, has recently come to light. Not long ago he dined with a small party of Englishmen in London; and in this small and select circle he is reported to have said that “the Americans are great; fools to maintain a war tariff in order to make a few smart men like him millionaires.” About the same time one of his party organs printed a singular piece of news. This was the Chicago Tribune, which has grown so restive and unmanageable under what it terms “McKinleyism. It says: “Andrew Carnegie, one of the king bees of the Republican party, who is a strong believer in protection, because he is one of the favored few who derive benefit therefrom, has locked out his employes at Beaver Falls, Pa., because they wanted increased wages. ”