Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1891 — The TinPlate Quation in a Nutshell. [ARTICLE]

The TinPlate Quation in a Nutshell.

No sane man doubts for a moment the ability of onr iron and steel manufacturers to make tin plate. The question at issue is: Can we make it to our economic advantage? Rhode Island has coal mines aud Massachusetts has iron mines, but Rhode Island does not mine coal, uor does Massachusetts mine iron for commercial purposes. And why? Simply because they can buy their coal and Iron wRh the products which they can produce economically, and thus get these material cheaper than if they should mine them themselve?. Nothing prevents our flag from flying at the masts of our ships on every sea and in every port of the world but the expense of hiring men to do it The question of tin plate production in the United States is the same. Can our iron manufacturers produce plate as cheaply as we can get it from Wales by paying tor it by the exportation of wheat and other products of our farms? They say they can—in time. But do the facts bear out their assertions? The Iron Age gives the latest quotation for IC tin plate, coke finish, made of Bessemer steel, at 13a e<L, or $3.28 per box of 108 pounds net, free on board at Liverpool It also give? the present price of Bessemer steel sheet* of twenty-eight wire gauge, tbe nearest approach to tbe steel ftaets of which the til plate quoted

abe ve Is made, as four cents per ponnd in Philadelphia. This :s the best we are able to do after thirty years of prohibitive duties on steel sheets. And yet we can buy tin plate in Liverpool at 3.02 cents per pound. This shows clearly that so long as the tin plate duty exists so long will ft impose a duty upon the canners and other consumers of tin plate.