Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1891 — OUR PROTECTED CUTLERY. [ARTICLE]

OUR PROTECTED CUTLERY.

“CUTLERS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.” A Table Knife Manufacturer at the Banquet—His Tale of Woe Last Year and His Higher Protection—How He Favors Foreigners. At the recent banauet of the American Protective Tariff league in New York the attempt was made to have everything American, Fo. once the wines of France and the cigars of Havana were tabooed. Native American wines from Ohio, California and New York state were used to warm the blood and cheer the hearts of the assembled McKinleyites and Key West cigars added their fragrance to the muddy flow of protection eloquence. Everything “American” and “patriotic,” and even some patriotic American manufacturers made use of the banquet to advrtise their protected wares. Ex-Con-gressman Niedringhaus, of St. Louis, who is in the business of tin plate manufaetnringfor exhibition purposes at banquets, conventions, and in protection newspaper offices, furnished a small bit of tin plate with each bill of fare. Another firm whicn advertised itself was that of Landers, Frary & Clark, of New Britain, Connecticut. This firm supplied the table knives stamped'with their name,Hollowed by the words, “ Cottiers to the American people.” Some people may recall the name of this firm by the prominence given it in the senate tariff debate last August in the matter of export discounts. When the hardware section of the tariff was under discussion Senator Carlisle made a very effective speech in whioh he thoroughly exposed the falsity of the claims often made before the ways and means committee by men who pretend to be on the verge of ruin, and yet sell their wares to foreigners at greatly reduced rates. In this speech he said some things about this Mr. Landers which are now interesting to recall. This Mr. Landers, who sat among the McKinleyites at their New York banquet, appeared before the McKinleyites of the ways and means committee last year to plead for higher duties on table cutlery. He had a protective duty already of 35 per cent, ad valorem. This did not near satisfy him. and McKinley gave him duties ranging from 40 to 60 per cent. In the speech referred to Senator Carlisle . quoted from the evidence of Mr. Landers before the ways and means committee. Before the committee he had said, “I am a manufacturer of table cutlery at New Britain, Conn.,;and represent before this committee what is left of that industry in the United States Another morsel from his testimony was this, “As stated here last night by Colonel Bradley, in this Solingen district the Germans manufacture very cheaply, and unless we art protected they will drive us out.” To which he added: “We have got to have this protection. I have given the facts, and do not propose to argue the question. ” . Mr. Landers’ tale of woe, however, was thoroughly exposed by Mr. Carlisle, and its falsity established beyond doubt. The senator read a news paragraph from the trade journal Hardware as follows: “Landers, Frary & Clark are now kept very busy supplying thsir western consumers with superb outlery. They were compelled during the spring to employ about 200 new hands to be able to keep up with the demand for their well famed goods.* This was near about the same time when Mr. Landers told the McKinley committee that he would be compelled to have higher protection or else go out of business. But Senator Carlisle added a still more crushing blow to the foregoing. Holding up a sheet of paper, he said: “I hold in my hands a bill, and I call the attention of the senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Aldrich) to this sentence, conspicuously printed in red ink upon the surface of it. This is a bill of goods sold by these same parties: “ ‘For immediate cash, with an agreement on the part of the purchaser that the goods shall uotbe sold in the United States. Custom house certificate be furnished if required.’ “So that they sell these goods for exportation,” Mr. Carlisle continued, “at a lower price than they sell them to American citlz ns for home consumption, and compel their purchaser to enter into a stipulation, spread out conspicuously upon the face of the receipt which he gets for the money paid for the goods, that he will not sell them in the United States, and if these manufacturers require it that he shall produce to them the certificate of the custom house to show that he has exported them for sale abroad. ” Senator Carlisle then read from sale bills of another cutlery firm, and showed from their foreign price list that they sell in the foreign market at prices from 24 to 28 per cent, below the home market price, and then he undertook to refresh the memory of Senator Allison in reference to a promise which the latter, had made:— “I think the senator from lowa, if he will examine these papers, will find that we have reached a point in this discussion where he, according to his pledge made the other day, will be compelled to halt; for as I understood that senator, his statement was substantially that, if evidence could be produced to show in any case that American manufacturers were actually selling their goods abroad for less than they were selling them here at home, he thought the duties might very well be reduced, or at least that he would not vote to increase them. ” But the lowa senator did not halt. He voted 40 to 60 per cent, protection duties to the “cutlers to the American people,” who sit among the }iigh tariff lords at their ‘American banquet” and then sell their protected American cutlery at lower prices to the foreigner than to the Amerioan consumer.

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