Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1891 — TIN-PLATES AND THE NEW TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

TIN-PLATES AND THE NEW TARIFF.

Butler lit out just at the nick of time, when his financial fortunes had reached their highest flood. He doubtless has a better bead for practical financiering than his political professions would indicate.

A called meeting of the Jasper County Alliance was held Tuesday, to take action in regard to the socalled Alliance paper, the Pilot, left in a bad shape by the absconding of Geo. Batler. It was decided to attempt to keep the paper on its feet by means of a stock company, officers for which were elected as follows: President, Luther Secretary, David Shields; Treasurer, Marion I Adams, Leslie Clark, the printer, was engaged to act as manager and local editor. The contract with him is for four weeks during which time it is hoped to float the stock of the company. The difficulties in the way of the new movement are many, snd it is very doubtful if they can be successfully surmounted. Financially it is in a bad way, as the money that should have been on hand to pay the running expenses for several months to come, is in Butler’s pockets, he hsvicg collected mos of his subscriptions in and considerable on advertising. The purchase; price of the outfit,, such as itis,isalso nearly all unpaid. Politically, the difficulties are equally as great If it continues to be a political organ, either as a Damo-Peoples paper as heretofore, or as a straight People’s Party organ, a large portion of the Alliance membere who are expected to help support it, will have nothing to dp with it; while if it is made honestly non-political, another very large, and heretofore the controlling element of its supporters, will lose their interest *

No feature oE the existing tariff law seems to lacerate the feelings of free-trade attorneys equally with that clause looking to the transfer of some portion of the tin-plate manufacture to the United States. Desperate as was their resistance while the bill was under discussion in Congress, antagonism seems to intensify with every additional assurance that the real intent of the framers of the bill is likely to be realized in the near future. “Reform” organs and orator 8 refuse to believe, or persist in denying, that tin exists any where in this country in paying quantities, in face of the'fact that American pig tfh has already found its w-ay into the markets But even if it was true that native tin may not safely be depended on for supplying the wants of domestic manufacturers, such fact cannot be consistently employed as argument in behalf of leaving to foreigners the exclusive manufacture of tin plates, of which 75,000,000 pounds are oon-

p ' 1 sumed monthly, and for which British monopolists during the past year pocketed more than SBO,OOO of American money for each working day. These men do not rely upon their own neighborhood for their supply of raw material, but draw upon the tin mines of Malacca and Tasmania for twothirds of their consumption. The McKinley tariff imposes no duty on pig tin, and the same sources of supply are open to our manufacturers as to British tin plate monopolists. Confronted with these facts, the free-trade attorney seizes upon his favorite weapon, higher prices—the same with which he has always stood ready to sand-bag every legislative measure looking to building up at home of industries in which foreigners have been securing the lion’s share of profits. The new law adds one dollar and a quarter per hundred pounds to the former duty on tin plates. Assuming that this is added to the foreign eost. it will in no wise affect the retail price of articles for which it it used, unless unscrupulous dealers make it a pretext for imposing upon customers.

All experience goes to prove that as soon as domestic competition looms up prices go down. Throughout the entire list of tariffprotected industries there cannot be found one exception to this rule, and it is the baldest recklessness to predict a different outcome in the case of tin-plates- In fact, it is a lively realization that this will be an early result of the increased tariff on tin-plates that occasions t lie commotion among foreign moil opolists and their confederates in this country. Prices of all other products of iron and steel—and these constitute ninety-five per cent pf tin-plates—have been re duced by half wherever competit ion has been given opportunity for a footing; but the tin-plate barons of Great Britain have pocketed increased profits by forcing patrons to pay old-time prices without regard to the cost of production. No wonder they squirm when served with notice that the end of their monopoly is near at hand. The absconding of Geo. Butler editor and publisher of the People's Pilot, with all the cash be could get hold of, was only the natural and logical public demonstration of the fact that he was simply the plain, vulgar kind of a scalawag that his appearance, conversation, associations and liquor laden effluvium proclaimed him to be. Those dozen or so democrats and sub-democrats and other would-be beneficiaries of his political duplicity, who imported him into this community and coun seled him afterwards, do not help t heir present case any by pretending to believe that he was bribed t o leave by the republicans. They k new from the first that he was one thing in politics and pretending

to be another, and therefore without principle; and they very soon found that he was a drunkard and a foulmouthed blackguard. With this knowledge before them, they continued to try to use him as an instrument to hoodwink and deceive Republican Alliance farmers, and to blackmail Rensselear business men with threats of a boycott; and now that they have been caught in the net spread for others t hey ought to take their medicine like men. They invested in a Judas and themselves are the worst betrayed; and there is a heap of poetic justice in that fact.