Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — WHO PAYS THE TARIFF? [ARTICLE]

WHO PAYS THE TARIFF?

How the Piute Glass Combination Manipulates the Heavy Duties on Plate Glass and Collects the Bonus from Consumers. Next to the duties upon window glass those on plate g ass are the highest in the whole McKinley tariff. Our Imports of polished unsilvered plate glass in 1890 were as follows: Square it ad val Sizes - feet. Value, cts ¥ o Not above 10x15 Inches square 93,819 $ 21,931 3 13 10xl >to 16x24 inches 195,z99 53,278 5 18 16x24 to 24x30 “ 956,182 294,568 8 26 24x30 to • 4x60 * 1,132,639 385,565 25 78 Above 21x60 “ 447,866 162,02 1 50 138 T0ta1..,9,821,(65 #917.369 66 In the rolling of plate-glass manufacturers do not intend to turn out glass of sizes less than 24x30 inches. The smaller sizes are made only from defective or broken pieces of large plates. They are therefore in the nature of bye products only, and made only to a limited extent. The demand for such small plates for small mirrors, display shelves and counters has been so great that large imports are necessary. The plate-glass manufacturers confine themselves to the larger plates only. The duties on these sizes are therefore their protection. Their annual production of polished plate is about 10,000,000 square feet, against an importaton of less than 3,000,000 square feet; but so well do they manipulate -the market and so strong is their control, over production and prices that they get' out of the tariff nearly all there is in it, as the following shows: Price in Price in Price in U. S. Prance U. 8. higher. Duties, eq. ft., sq. ft., eq. ftl, »q. ft., Sizes— cents, cents, cents. cents. 24x31 to 3 x4B in.. 27.12 46 18.88 25 30x49 inches and 0ver3).44 73 42.56 50 The effect of this use of the tariff, to get out of it as much as possible to increase profits, may be shown by the history of the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company. Nino years ago this company built its first works at Creighton, Pa ; five years later another plant was erected at Tarentum. In 1889 J. B. Ford, one of the principal stockholders of the company, erected another plant at Ford City and sold it to the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company for $1,500,000, one-half of which was to be paid in bonds and the other half in stock of the company at par. Trouble arose at once, for the other stockholders objected to the payment of $750,000 at its par value only, for the stock had advanced 100 per cent in the open market. The original stock of the company was SBOO,OOO, which was later increased to $2,000,000 and, when the Ford City works were purchased, to $2,750,000. In spite of the constant increase in capital the stock is now worth S2OO per share, the par value being SIOO. Last year the company declared a dividend of 31 per cent. Meanwhile the company pays its workmen lower wages than are paid in any other industry requiring skilled labor. The contiol of the industry by a combination of the manufacturers is complete. Just so long as tariff continues as high as it is, just so long will the combination to fix prices so as to get as big a tariff bonus as possible and to keep down the wages of labor continua If the men will not work in their factories at the wages they fix, “they can go like I done,” as one of the workmen expressed it But “the tariff is not a tax,” says McKinley, “for the foreigner pays it ” Is he right?