Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1892 — Reduce the Duties on Cordage and Rope. [ARTICLE]

Reduce the Duties on Cordage and Rope.

The gentlemen who have introduced in Congress bills to put binding twine on the free list, and certain journals which continue to demand that a bindingtwine bill shall be the cornerstone of the Democratic policy, can obtain some very, useful information from current commercial reports and the statute known as the McKinley tariff act. The commercial reports which might enlighten them are those relating to the price of cordage. Several advances have recently been made by the powerful combination or chartered trust which controls the supply. The Iren Age of the 7th inst. published the following: “The associated manufacturers (the National Cordage Company) have within a few days made two advances in price, which they are enapled to announce and maintain in view of the fact that they are almost in undisputed control of the market, the outside competition being relatively unimportant. The first of the two advances occurred Dec. 28, when the following prices were announced: * * * The above advanced prices were followed Dec. 30 by the announcement of another advance of £of a cent per pound on manila and 1 cent per pound on sisal and New Zealand. The trade was hardly pepared for such radical advances as the above, especially as the price of the raw material is about the same as for some time.” 1 The Iron Age announced an advance on Oct. 22, and at that time published the new price-list. We give below the prices for rope announced at the three dates mentioned: CORDAGE PRICES. Oct. 22. Dec. 28. Dec. 30. Manila rope 9)4 11)4 12)4 Sisal rope 6 4)4 9)4 l<ew Zealand rope 5)4 1% 8)4 It should not be forgotten that the first of these lists sets forth an advance of } of a cent per pound, and that the complete lists include hay rope, hide rope, bale rope, lath yam, and many other kinds of cordage. In the middle of October the price of manila rope was only 8J cents, and sisal was selling at The advance in less than three months has been 44 per cent, for manila rope, 68 per cent, for sisal, and 59 per cent, for New Zealand. The power of the tariff to increase the, price of binding twine is now limited to 7-10 of a cent a pound at the outside. The astute Manufacturer, the organ of Mr. Dolan’s high-tariff association, recently spoke of “the increased duty upon binding twine, which has tumbled the price of that article within a single year from 12 cents a pound to 8 cents.” The truth is, that not only was the duty on binding twine almost entirely cut off, but also the raw materials out of which such twine is made were removed from the dutiable to the free list. The cost of production was thereby largely reduced, and at the same time the power of the ring to raise prices by the aid of a duty on the finished product was almost en-' tirely taken away. This is one of the few good features of the McKinley tariff.' If our friends will stop talking about binding twine and will take up the other kinds of cordage, which are still “protected” by considerable duties, they will show that they have not wholly overlooked the McKinley tariff act and the changes it has made. In the exactions of the chartered trust which so boldly makes these great advances in the other kinds of cordage advances ranging from 44 to 68 per cent. —there is something which may well engage the attention of the Ways and Means Committee at Washington. A demand for free cordage would mean something. In the case of binding twine there is scarcely anything left to talk about. —New York Times.

There is a bright chap sending news from Los Angeles to the papers. He sent an accdhnt of a horrible suicide in which the miserable wretch was described as having “first mutilated himself in a horrible way, then cut his head with an ax, took laudanum, stabbed himself over the heart with a big jackknife, and shot himself in the head.” The much-lacer-ated individual lived for several hours because, as the correspondent says, “the knife fortunately glanced on the breastbone and thus saved him in- * stant death.” That .was fortunate indeed, not so much for the suicide, who escaped instant death to linger in agony for hours, but for the world of newspaper readers, who but for this incident might have never discovered how droll a rural correspondent can be when ho doesn’t want to.