Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1899 — IN THE LAST DITCH. [ARTICLE]

IN THE LAST DITCH.

FEW GROUNDS OF ATTACK FOR FREE-TRADERS The Troth aa to Export Prices—Great Home Demand Relieves Manufacturers of Necessity of Bending Goods Abroad to Be Sold at a Boss The sale to foreign consumers of American manufactured products at a lower price than American consumers are required to pay Is one of the principal counts in the Indictment which free traders bring against the American policy of protection. Indeed, this, together with the claim that trusts are fostered and promoted by protection, is almost the only ground of attack remaining for the free traders.' The splendid facts of a revived domestic trade, and of a general condition of unprecedented prosperity growing out of the restoration of a protective tariff, these great facts are so patent and so indisputable that the free trader of today is reduced to the extremity of opposing protection on two pretexts only, that of responsibility for trusts, and that of enabling our manufacturers to make big profits on the goods they sell at home while selling the same class of goods to foreigners at much lower prices. The first of these indictments—that relating to the trusts—is easily disposed of by the proof that trusts thrive in free trade Great Britain fully as well as in protected America, and that the most powerful of all our domestic trusts are those which are not in the

least degree affected or benefited by a protective tariff. The assertion that protection lays an unjust burden upon our own people by compelling them to pay higher prices than foreigners pay for goods produced in this country proves to be quite in the nature of a boomerang. To begin with, the assertion is at present false and promises to remain false for some time to come. It Is downright absurdity to suppose that, with our mills and factories running overtime in order to catch up with orders for goods, our manufacturers are sacrificing any part of their profits in order to sell abroad at reduced prices goods which they are unable to supply in sufficient volume to meet the domestic demand. American business men don’t do business that way. . Pertinent informatlbn bearing upon this point is at hand in the shape of a report just put out by the Treasury Bureau of Statistics, whose energetic chief, Mr. Austin, has just made a tour of observation to the manufacturing centers of New England and the Middle States. Mr. Austin concludes, that if the places included In his visit are fairly representative of the conditions generally existing among manufacturing establishments throughout the country, as they undoubtedly are, there can be no occasion for complaint that mills and men are lacking employment. Mr. Austin visited the cotton, woolen, worsted, silk, fiber, carpet, print goods, rubber, boot and shoe, hat, pottery and watch and clock manufacturing establishments, and in no case did he find a lack of orders for the manufacturers or of employment for men and women desiring employment. On ihe contrary, the great cotton, woolen, silk and other textile mills are running on full time and overtime, while the manufacturers of rubber goods, boots and shoes, clothing and pottery reported their orders far in excess of their capacity to fill with promptness. “Our chief difficulty,” said the manager of a great manufactory of rubber clothing, “Is to get a sufficient number of employes and sufficient machinery to meet our orders. The crude rubber we can get, though the importations of that are increasing rapidly, and the price advancing because of the increased demand; but the costly machinery and the skilled labor which are to do the work are not so easily had. We maintain constantly a school for the Instruction of young men and women in the lines of work required in our factory, and yet with the constant reduction of our force by the demands upon It from other mills of this character, we are short of hands and unable to keep up with our orders.” Similar statements were made by the managers of other manufacturing establishments. The cotton mills, woolen

establishments were reported weeks behind with their orders, which come from all parts of the United States and, of the world. Daring the last eight months between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 worth of boots and shoes, the product of American factories, have been sent out of the country, the total for the eight months being double that of the corresponding months of 1898. Of this large exportation of this single product of our factories the exports to the United Kingdom alone were $477,734, against $263,175 in the corresponding months of last year; to the West Indies, $467,519, against $167,420 in the corresponding months of last year; to British Australasia, $392,439, against $208,783 in the corresponding months of last year; to Mexico, $206,880, against $66,816 in the corresponding months of last year; to Africa, $94,605, against $54,653 in the corresponding months of last year, while shipments were also made to Asia, Oceanica, Central and South America, as well as to the great industrial and manufacturing countries of France, Germany and the United Kingdom. An illustration of the activity of the manufacturers in other lines is found in a statement made by Dr. Wilson, the head of the Philadelphia Commercial Museums, and also the director of the export exposition: “Our chief difficulty in the preliminary work of the exposition,” said he, “was in the fact that the manufacturers of the country were so busy that many of them could not find time and the necessary force of employes with which to prepare exhibits satisfactory to themselves, while in many other cases our requests for exhibits were met with the statement that since they are now months behind with

their orders the display of their products would merely add to their temporary embarrassment by bringing them a still greater excess of orders over their capacity for production. -In the great iron and steel manufacturing industries we found that many of the establishments had from six to eighteen months’ orders ahead, and that they were working to their fullest capacity and unable to increase their product without an increase in machinery, which, of course, cannot be made in a moment.” In the iron and steel industry the figures of our exports show that the extreme activity of manufacturers extends not alone to the home market, but to that supplied by others parts of the world.' The exportation of manufactures of iron and steel in the eight months ending with August, 1899, amount to $68,008,071, against $52,925,082 in the corresponding months of 1898, $40,757,920 in the corresponding months of 1897 and $29,957,090 in the corresponding months of 1890.

A still further evidence which our foreign commerce figures show of the activity of our manufacturers Is found in the rapid increase in the importation of materials used by manufacturers. The importations of fibers for use in the manufacturing industries in the eight months ending with August, 1899, amounted to $14,377,758, against sll,989,140 in the corresponding months of 1898 and $9,851J516 in the corresponding months of 1897; hides and skins, $32,000,820, against $27,748,084 In the corresponding months of 1898 and $22,037,280 in the corresponding months of 1897; India rubber, $22,800,318, against $17,418,404 In the eight months of 1898 and $13,100,045 In the corresponding months of 1897, and raw silk for use in manufacturing, $23,452,903, against $16,039,211 In the corresponding months of 1898 and $13,416,156 in the corresponding months of 1897. Does this look as though our manufacturers were engaged in .supplying foreign consumers at cut rates? They are, of course, doing nothing of the sort There was a time—the free-trade tariff time of 1893-1897—when American exporters were sending abroad considerable quantities of domestic manufactures at a very small profit, sometimes at a loss, for ttfey needed the money with which to pay wages and keep their mills and factories in operation. Many of them, however, were unable to continue producing and were forced to shut down altogether. But we are no longer doing business under free-trade tariff conditions, no longer looking for a foreign outlet for surplus production without profit or at a loss. Foreigners continue to buy our goods in constantly increasing quantities, but they are paying current market prices