Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 101, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1908 — The Tin Plate Industry. [ARTICLE]

The Tin Plate Industry.

This would have been a familiar * l head to a political discussion twelve yeprs ago. That was before tin plate J was manufactured in the United States and was when , the Wilson tariffless bill was In operation. Now the city of Elwood has. tin plate mills that employ 2,300 workmen. They could have never been operated in the United States save for the protective tariff that prohibited the free entrance of the product of foreign factories and foreign and poorly paid labor. M. E. Baylor, formerly of Rensselaer, has been employed in the Elwood tin plate factories for a number of years, and when he was here the first of this week he told of some of the marvels of the tin plate industry. There are twenty-eight mills or roller machines at Elwood, and each roller has a capacity of 11,000 pounds for each 8-hour shift of men, and as each roller is 33,000 pounds each day The 28 machines therefore have a daily capacity of 924,000 pounds each day, which is about 10 car loads every 24 hours. The pay roll of tbe workmen is about $65,000 every two weeks. And the tin plate industry*!# only one of the thousands of industries that have been fostered by the Dingley tariff. _ _ - Wl . And yet Bryan says that the tariff is one of the Issues this year. As Bryan voted in congrses for the Wilson bill it is probable that he would if president, vote for the withdrawal of tariff from tin plate and again start up factories In Wales. That would mean $65,000 every other week that the mechanics of Elwood would not get.

The Republican promise is to revise those schedules that seriously need It Surely the laboring man and the mechanic can see which party should revise the tariff.