Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1892 — THE TIN PLATE SUPERSTITION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE TIN PLATE SUPERSTITION.

Congt-Mimaa Bunting Eiamiu* the President’* Statistic*. President Harrison in his letter of acceptance reiterates the exploded arguments of his party in defense of the tin plate industry, so called, which has been born under the midwifery of his administration. No one knows better than Mr. Harrison the utter hollowness of the tin plate pretense up to date, and it seems incredible that he should so far presume upon the ignorance of the people as to bring forward the antiquated subterfuge of reasoning so often exploded in defense of the infant. “Once or twice,” says Mr. Harrison, “in our history the production of tin plates had been attempted, and the price obtained by the Welsh makers would have enahled our makers to produce it at a profit. But the Welsh makers at once cut prices to a point that drove the American beginners out of business, and when this was accomplished again made their own price*. ” Mr. Harrison is inexcusable in thus revamping this logic of Cronemeyer after it had been so thoroughly disproved in congressional debates and had oorne to be so thoroughly discredited by the people. The history of the price of imported tin plates for the past twenty-five years has been gauged striotly by the world’s market pnoe of iron and pig tin, which ingredients constitute the entire bulk of tin plateß and 90 per cent, of their cost. Market reports show that in 1872 pig tin was quoted at £159 per ton. They dropped to £SB in 1878. Philadelphia pig iron in 1872 was SSB per ton, and dropped to $16.50 per ton in 1878. The corresponding prices of tin plates were 28s. per box In 1872 and 12s. 1 l-2d. in 1878. a less per oentage decline than aioted in the case of either iron or pigtin. ; Yet this is the very period when, as the parties of high bounties assert, the Welsh makers put down the price of their plates in order to run American makers out. In a business sense the Welsh manufacturers were making better profits in selling at 12s. 1 l-2d. in 1878 than they were in selling for 265. in 1872, owing to the difference In the price of raw material.

In 1880 there was am advance in the price of plates for the very reason of the enhanced cost of pig tin and iron. Pig iron had advanced to £4l in February, 1880, while pig tin had advanced to £lO5 per ton. ’This increase in the raw material sent up the price of tin plates •bont Bs. Since 1880 the price of tin plates has gradually declined, until the increased duty was assured in July, 1890, when there was an advance of nearly $1 a box, caused by the rush of American buyers. If it was the policy of the Welsh makers to put down prices whenever there was an attempt on the part of Americans to start the business, why did they not lower the price during the first six months of 1891, when, ir newspaper reports could be believed, tin plate mills were starting up by the hundreds ? Yet it was during thiß very period, owing to a speculative demand for plates, that the price was ran up over $1 per box. If Mr. Harrison were a plain business man, would he pretend that the fluctuations in tin plates for the two periods mentioned above, and to which he refers in his letter of acceptance, were not the direct result of fluctuations in the raw material of which they were made? It lacks only a few days of two years since the McKinley law was enacted. The reports quoted by Mr. Harrison show that 18,646,719 pounds of tin and terne plates have been produced. Of this amount 9,107,129 pounds were simply roofing iron with a mixture of lead and tin in the coating. Daring this time the American consumption or tin plates, according to the returns of the government, were something over 1,800,000,000.

So it appears that an industry which its promotors promised would supply our whole requirements within nine months has supplied lees than 1 per cent, of such requirements. Up to the 81st of March last it was shown that tin plates had been advanced to consumers, through increased price of plates and duty paid thereon, $20,786,808.80. Add to this duty paid on importation for the last quarter of the fiscal year ending 1892, over $4,000,000, and we have a total outlay of nearly $25,000,000. The only thing to be credited against this enormous expenditure is the wages paid to imported Welshmen for tinning this 18,646,719 pounds, whioh at twelve oenta per box, the established price, would amount to $16,876.04 less than eighty cents received to every SIBO paid out. Would Mr. Harrison, as manager of s business corporation not backed by a government bounty and organized under tie expectation and assurance that the industry would be self-supporting in less than nine months, felicitate himself in realizing that after two years the industry of which he is the responsible head had cost the company $25,000,000, and that the only asset was a labor account of $16,874.04; in other words, that the concern had paid oat SIOO for every sixty cents received?— Congressman T. L. Bunting in The National Provisoner.

Tuf Makufactubkb:— "You see if this extra tariff is put on we can give employment to 84,000 people in this country m one year.” Uncut Sam:— “Yea, that is all very well, but you will have to import the labor to make this tin, and furthermore, this tariff that you want put on will increase the ppriua of tin to the poople so that it wouMM cheaper for me to pay each one oTK»4,000 people SSOO apieoa wgdgvMW.