Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1910 — OUR TIN PLATE TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

OUR TIN PLATE TARIFF.

What It Has Done Fof Great Brita-n and What It Has Failed to Do For Us—Two Million People Wronged In Order to Benefit Fifteen Thousand Lord Avebury, better known to Americans by his former name of Sir John Lubbock. said io a speech at Dundee not long ago: “We used.to hear great Complaints about the United States duty on tin plates, and the case is interesting and instructive, not to say amusing. It has been admirably told by Sir J. J. Jenkins (Lord Giantawe), who, knows the trade intimately. “As soon as the duty was suggested the price went up in the United States, and our manufacturers sent over large supplies, on which they made a mag nificent profit. When the tariff came into operation the trade, of course, fell off But the change proved disastrous to the American industries dependent on tin plates. The American fruit growers could no longer compete with those of Mexico. Canadian salmon could be canned much more cheaply, than that of the United States, so that if our tin plate manufacturers suffered In the United States their trade with other countries was increased "Eventually the outcry in the United States became irresistible, congress agreed to give a rebate of no. less than 99 per cent of the duty, and at present almost the whole of the canned goods exported from the United States are packed in Welsh tin plates. This rebate on the Welsh tin plates is more than the cost of the carriage and in surance. so that the result the American duties, therefore, is that Californian fruits are sold in London as cheap as or even cheaper than in San Francisco. I may add that the tin plate industry in America employed 15,000 people arid the canning industry 2,000,':i'0. so that the net result is to benefit 15,000 people- and to injure U. 000.000 and to give us cheap fruit and salmon." ' . , And now comes the New York Tribune. that great protectionist paper, backing up this story with circumstantial details. In a letter from its British correspondent published in its issue of May 1G it says: “Welshmen are not easily beaten when they are fighting for lifeblood. They have survived the McKinley tariff and several variants of it which have left the American home industry at an advantage over rival manufactures abroad. Swansea, instead of being ruined, has multiplied its foreign markets, enormously increased its product of tin plate, improved its process of manufacture, adapted itself to American requirements and prospered generally. “Tin plate is now shipped to thirtysix countries, Japan, China. Korea and Siam being among them, and the home consumption has been largely increased. Every improved process* employed in America has been adopted here. A thinner wash of tin is employed in the treatment of the steel plates, economies have been introduced in, the acid and palm oil baths, and a man and a boy with superior machinery accomplish the work which formerly employed seven pairs of hands.” More remarkable still, we are assured that America remains the best customer for Welsh tin plate notwithstanding the development of the American tin plate industry. Two things may be learned from the history of the. tin plate tariff—viz, the folly of meddling and muddling with natural trade conditions and the tonic effects of competition in helping a trade out of its difficulties.