Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1892 — Imports of Tin Plate. [ARTICLE]

Imports of Tin Plate.

4- few days ago, says The New York Times, we invited the attention of our hiph tariff friends to some very significant official figures relating to imports of tin plate. We regret that our high tariff friends have not yet found time to comment upon thorn. We have now procured from the treasury department some additional figures which arc even more interesting than those we recently published. Again we ask our high tariff friends to inspect the official record.

Just before the new duty on tin plate was. imposed, very large quantities of tin plate was imported. The reports show that about 350,000,000 pounds—or a supply for six months—were thus imported in excess of what may be called the normal average annual imports. For this reason the quantity imported in the six months immediately following the imposition of the higher duty did not exceed 105,000,000 pounds. But in January last the stocks which had been imported under the old duty were running low, and the demand caused tiie import movement to increase. Here are the treasury department’s reports of the quantities imported in the first four months of the current calendar year: Imports of Tin Plate. 1892. Pounds. January 30,612,209 February 42,338,246 March 67,498,960 April 70,489,102 It was the report for March that we mentioned a few days ago. We have now added the report for April, which was published by the treasury department on Saturday last. We pointed out that the quantity imported in March exceeded the average monthly imports of tin plate for the years 1889 and 1890, when the import movement was not disturbed by tariff legislation. It will lie seen that the quantity imported in April was still greater. The comparison may be shown as follows: Tin portr ot Ti n Plate. Pounds. The fiscal year lsß9 . 127,945,073 The fiscal year 1890 ..!/. Uv',4sß Monthly average for 1889 60,662,164 Monthly average for 1890 50.322,038 Imports in March, 1892........... , ~498,960 Imports in April, 1893 70,489,102

Since March 1 we have been importing moro tin plate per month than was imported per month in the years of 1889 and 1890, and the official reports show a steady increase in the rate. The accuracy of the reports will not be questioned by our high-tariff friends, for the figures art those of Mr. Harrison’s secretary of the treasury, who has kindly published the report for the month of April at a time when the figures can be Set forth in the platform which will be adopted at Minneapolis this week. The duty on the quantity imported in March and April would have been at the old rate, $1,379,880; under the new rate it was $3,035,787, an increase of $1,655,--897. We shall be disappointed if our hi^r-tariff * friends persist in ignoring this import movement and the significance of it.

Reliance upon the home market is eonfessedly abandoned. Reciprocity is based upon the truth admitted at last that the home market is insufficient. It is equally true that many months of reciprocity, re-enforced by the short crops of Europe, and by the famine in Russia, have proved wholly unavailing to gain to the pound of pork, the barrel of flour, or the bale of cotton the price they once ordinarily bore.—From Senator Turpie’s speech on Reciprocity Humbug. If there is a workingman in Indiana whose wagee have been advanced since the McKinley law took effect, we should be glad to receive his name and addxea.