Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1901 — TARIFF ON IRON AND STEEL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TARIFF ON IRON AND STEEL.

Evils Which Would Follow Any Rash Dealing with Protective System. Partial reports of what President Schwab, of the United State* Steel Corporation, said on the subject of the Tariff, In his examination before the Industrial Commission at Washington last Saturday, have been widely published In newspapers Inimical to the policy which has built up the industries of the United States, and made this country the most prosperous of all the countries of the world. The workingmen are more interested In the maintenance of the Republican Protective Tariff policy than any other class. They are even more interested In it than the class whose capital is invested In American industries, for this reason: When a crash comes, such as that which followed the success of the Free-Trade propaganda of, 1892, It cuts down the Income of capital invested in manufactures, to be sure, yet people who own property are only obliged to retrench their expenditures; they are not reduced to absolute poverty. But workingmen lose their employment, and In many cases have nothing to fall back upon. In countless Instances their families suffer. Sometimes they become tramps without even a shelter over their heads at night. These things happened as a result of the approach of Free-Trade in the policy of the national administration which followed the success of the Democratic party at the polls in 1892. These things have followed whenever rude hands were laid upon the American ark of Protection. These things would certainly follow any rash dealing at the present time with the Protective Tariff system which fences the American workingmen from direct competition in his home market with the underpaid labor of foreign lands.

The report of what Mr. Schwab said before the Industrial Commission shows that Mr. Schwab admitted that American manufacturers often sell their products in foreign markets at a lower price than they obtain at home. But it also show’s that he- declared a large pftrt of this export trade is conducted at a loss, and that he went on to give the reason why shrewd American business men are willing under certain conditions to do business at a loss. It is done, he very clearly explained, for the purpose of keeping their works “running full all the time.” This is a matter of more consequence to the laboring classes than to the men who own the factories. Mr. Schwab continued to the effect that “those classes of steel and iron manufactures in which the cost of labor is not a heavy item, such as billets add rails, could get along now without any Tariff, but in the finer grades, such as wire, where the cost of labor is the heaviest item of production, the present- Tariff is necessary In order to give labor its adequate reward.” Mr. Schw’ab also called attention to the effect of foreign Tariffs. “If we could only get into Germany and France duty free,” he said,” the world’s markets would be ours.” Germany, next to the United States, has been moving upwards as an exporter of manufactured products faster than any other nation in the world. She is doing this under a Protective Tariff policy. France, conspicuous for her economic sagacity, is also a Protective Tariff country. American newspapers which are solicitious for the welfare of American workingmen, will do well’, if they quote the testimony of Mr. Schwab before the Industrial Commission, to see that these Important points in his testimony are not overlooked.—Milwaukee “Sentinel.”

Fancy Cotton*. In a Washington dispatch to the Philadelphia “Press” is given the story of the contest which has just ended in a decision of the United States Circuit Court sustaining the action of the appraising department of the New York Custom House in the matter of valuation of and Import duties upon a large line of what are known as fancy cotton goods. The Importance of this decision will at once be manifest when it is known that hereafter an additional duty of one and two cents per yard will be collected upon large importations of cotton textiles which have heretofore come in at a lower rate. Not only will the Government revenues be increased thereby, but the added duty will result in a greatly increased production of fancy cottons on American looms. Last year, undei erroneous classification and consequent lower duties, we imported about s9,<K | 0,000 in foreign values of fancy cotton cloths, the greater portion of which could, and with adequate du-

ties would, be woven in the United,. States. The appraising officials in New York took up this question nearly two years ago, and proceeded to carry into effect the provisions of the Dingley Tariff law of 1897. The result, as stated, was a reclassification and the increase of duties from one to two cents per yard. The action of the local appraiser was confirmed by the Board of General Appraisers, but was resisted by the Importers and by the Collector of the Port of New York. The case was carried on appeal by the importers to the United States Circuit Court, and in thfl decision just rendered the appraising department and the contention'in behalf of the Government are fully sustained. In consequence of thi/ decision sotne 0,000 lodtas will be imi£j e .

diately converted from lower grades and staple* to the weaving of fajrfcy cotton goods, and many mote iGJjms will follow suit. It is the beginning of a great change in cotton Whereby the Northern milflg W jn in time devote themselves alir/, s t entirely to. the proddction of the fs ner grades and leave to the Southern Bullis the production of the cheaper staples. In short, it Is the practical »oluJ(j on O f the problem

of diversifying the cotton industry In the United States. As the San Francisco "Chronicle” aptly observed in connection with the decision of a fe*r weeks ago sustaining the advance of values in the celebrated Swiss embroideries cases, this decision in the fancy cotton cases not only to the Government its rightful dues in the shape of increased revenues, but, what is still more Important, It insures to domestic producers the full degree of Protection contemplated and intended in the Dingley Tariff law. We Were Panic-Proof. The greatest financial disturbance ever known in the history of Wall street has just come and gone. At no time in the past was there ever so tremendous an unsettling of values in so short a space. The panic was terrific while it lasted, but it was all over in forty-eight hours, whereupon the country settled down and resumed business as though nothing had happened. Why was the panic of May. 9, 10, 1901, of so brief duration and so relatively harmless in its consequences? Whenthecountry’s financial pulse went wrong in W’all street, how.did it happen that the country, as a whole, experienced no fever, no? collapse, no shock? First—Because the country was full of money. Bank vaults were bursting with money, and it was good money, every dollar of it, thanks to the Republican party. In New York State savings banks alone there was nearly a billion dollars, representing the savings of wage-earners. Second The industrial prosperity which had produced this plethora of ready money was not in the least shaken or diminished, thanks to the Dingley protective tariff law enacted by the Republican party. Our great home market with its consuming capacity of $15,000,000,000 a year of manufactured goods was a Gibraltar of strength. It was not so In the panic of 1893, when the election of a free-trade President and Congress paralyzed every domestic industry. Third—Our accumulated trade balances, averaging from $400,000,000 to $700,000,000 a year for the past four years—the direct result of keeping our money at home and of requiring payment in cash Instead of foreign-made commodities in settlement of our vast excess of exports over Imports—gave us a strength and confidence which nothing could Impair. , In short, It was “McKinley and Protection Prosperity” that made the country panic-proof.—American Economist.

/ ' Outlook for Flax and Linen. Last year there were 2,300,000 acres given over to the raising of flax in the three States of North and South Dakota and Minnesota; and it is reported that this year’s sowing will show an increase of 200,000 acres over the figures for last year. The flax Industry is one more to be added to the list of industries which owe their establishment in this country directly to our protective tariff policy. It, along with the silk industry, the tin-plate Industry, the steel Industry and a host of others in their turn, has been belittled and sneered at by the free-traders, and the protection given to it has been opposed with violence. It is in a fair way now, however, toward attaining such proportions that these followers of Cobden will be obliged, in order to retain any reputation, even a somewhat shaky one, for truthfulness, to drop their cry of “bogus industry,” so far as flax-rais-ing is concerned; and the time is not very far distant when the United States will be able to entirely supply its people with linen of home manufacture, as well as wjth native woolens and cottons and silks. Aren’t They Daisies?

Protection Gain* Foreign Market*. <»ur Increase of exports during the fiscal year 1001 over the preceding-year will approach 1100,000,000. This, too, hits been done without the sacrifice' of a single job. Were our exports to Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands included, as formerly, $20,(100,000 could be added to the above amount, which is, in Itself, very satisfactory, considering the war In China, “European retaliation,” etc. Protection gains more foreign markets thqji Free-Trade, and preserves home market as welL '’Farmers Getting Rich. 'Tde farmers of the United States are Setting wealthy. The banks are bulging with their money. Abandoned farms and farm mortgages arte a thing of the past, and Instead of paying from 6 to 10 per cent for money, our Western farmers, after buying all the necessaries and luxuries they want, have money to lend. —f— • Right Bort of Imperialist* McKinley Is not an imperialist; but in excellence he Is an Imperial President, or in about the same sense as New York is fib imperial State.—Cylde (Kan.) Herald.