Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1891 — CURRENT COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT COMMENT.

WHAT THE TARIFF DOESPrices of Protected Manufactures Reduced by Stipulated Competion. . - - As a rule the orators on, the stump for the Democratic ticket this year studiously avoid all reference to the tariff, but when they attack the subject they invariably follow in the old line of attack and insist that the onily effect of the McKinley bill has been to increase the prices of protected goods to an extent corresponding with the increase in the tariff charges. This line of argument has been refuted time and again, but without effect upon the tariff tinkerers. That the Republican contention to the effect that the high duties increase production, and consequently competion, and that the result is the invariable reduction in price, is well founded, has received another striking proof by the action of the manufacturers of paper-mak-ers’ felts. There are about twelve mills in the United States where these felts are mad?. The McKinley bill increased the duty on the products of these mills 75 per cent. Immediately after the.passage of the bill the millers began to increase the capacity of their plants, and by the time the law went into effect they were fully prepared to supply the entire demand of the consumers in this country. One of the mills is located about sixteen miles from the city of Buffalo, in the State of New York, and Mr. L. W. Boyton, who is a member of the firm owning the mill, was asked what the effect of the increased tariff nad upon the business. He replied: “The effect was immediate. Every maker of felts at once increased his capacity to the fullest extent. The result was that the products of the mills in the United States were sufficient within a month to supply the entire demand for the home trade, and now I do not think there is a single piece of felt imported for pa-per-makers’ use.” “I suppose that on account of the increase duty on the foreign articles you immediately increase the price of those felts which you produce?” “On the contrary,” replied Mr. Boyton, “We at once reduce Jthe price.” “How did you come to do that, when you practically had the trade in your own hands?” “That is a simple question to answer. Competition did it. With the danger of foreign competition removed every mill was stimulated to produce every possible yard that could be made. The production following the passageOof the McKinley bill was so greatly increased that the cost of production was correspondingly diminished and the American millers were compelled to compete with oneanother, and competition resulted, as it inevitably does, in the reduction in price. The con- ' gumer is, consequently, the gainer as usual.” SALES OF AMERICAN TIN PLATE ; One of the gentlemen who contradicts the tin plate liar lives in Illinois and near Chicago; at Peoria, tamely. Very soon we shall have a score or two of merchants resident in Chicago who will tell the man who i says that no tin plate is made in i America that they have plenty of 1 American made tin plate to sell him. The Peoria gentleman writes to the Inter Ocean that during last week he ( called upon the Chicago agent of the . Laufman (Pa.) tin plate works and , inspected samples and received prices of their American made tin plate. A car load a week was offered by the Laufman agent to the Peoria dealer. This we submit to the consideration of the Times, Tribune and Herald is not “in small quantities.” [ John Johnson & Co., of Chicago, are mentioned by the Peoria gentleman as having received a car load of the I Laufman American made tin plate.

I The United States Iron and Tin Plate Manufacturing Company, of Demmler, Pa., with branch offices at ' Pittsburg, has been making “bright i tin plates,” which is to say tin plates ' such as are used in the manufacture of tinware, and it has addressed inquiries to all its customers as to what they think of the Demmler American made tin plate in comparii son with English made. Thirty-five i firms that have bought and used I Demmler American made tin plate . have made response. Not one of ’ them finds the American made infe--1 rior to the British, Steinman & Co., ■ of Lancaster, Pa., say: “The quality of your tin plate is satisfactory to ' the trade, and would be given pref- ■ erence over foreign plates at same ( price.” O’Brien & Maxfield, of Potsj dam, N. Y., say: “We find your * plate better than foreign, bought at I the same price and same time.” ■ Palmer & Crane, of Wilmington, Ohio, say: “We honestly think your plate better than any I. C- grade of plate that we ever have used. One great trouble that we have is that we can not make some people believe that it is American made. 1 ’ I Mr. Ebinger, manager of theVog- , elsang Furnace Company of Columbus, Ohio, has given Gov. Campbell something to think about by prei senting him with a box of Demmler tin-plate. The Vogelsang Company has used a great deal of the Demipler plate, and it says that it is “superior to that formerly imported from Wales.” Lest Gov. Campbell should question the true Americanness of I tne Demmler plate Mr. Ebinger sent with the box that he presented to Governor Campbell the accompaning affidavit: ? “Uhited States Iron sod Tin-Plate

Manufacturing Company, Demmler; Allegheny Co., Pa., Oct. I.—This il to certify that the I. C. Vogelsang Furnace Company, Columbus, Ohio, were taken from aflJox of our regulai “U. S.” bright” Plates, such as w< ship from here daily in a regulai commercial way, and further from steel pillets made in this county, and the machinery which we use is all built in this country and the work* men which we employe are all Amer< lican citizens, or at least have de clared their intention of becoming such. United States Iron and Tin-plat< Manufacturing Company. W. C. Cronemeyer. Sworn and subscribed before me th< 2d day of October, A. D. 1891. Edwin Soles, Notary Public. The free-trade hirelings must maki some other material than tin-plat< the subject of their falsehoods. Thai there is a con siderble quantity oi American plate on the market no longer is questionable; its quality if excellent, and its quantity will in. crease daily, and before long American tin-plate will be as fixed a fact as American steel rails.