The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-30
Give us the Soda Ash Ma nufacture.

From the Tribune.
Soda ash within ten days has gone up half a
cent pound.
Well what of that? Just this For the
bread that we Americans eat-for the window
glass that lights our houses, and in part shelters
us from the weather-for every pound of hard
soap we use-for every sheet of our letter, cap.
and printing paper for the bleaching of our
cotton cloths, and very many other blessings,
we are absolutely dependent on Great Britain.
Her manufacturers of soda ash have the
monopoly Of furnishing the United States with
that article, indispensably necessary IN itself
and in its correlative products to the supply of
the commonest wants of our social and domestic
lite. There is not soda ash mandatory in
the United States. There are the skeletons of
many, killed dead by competition under tree
trade tariffs or free trade clauses in protective
tariffs. which represents the difference OF wages
paid to common laborers in the United States
and Great Britain-50 cents a day there, and
$3.50 day here. But there is not sDgle liv-
ing, kicking soda ash factory in our whole
country.
Let us restate this our nations Dependence
If war should break out between Great Brian
and the United States, we should be instantly
cut off from our supply of the materials to make
bread, soap, glass, and paper. The msnufac-
turing interests dependent upon soda ash and
its CorrClatives would forthwith be brought to
the greatest distress or to absolute ruins so soon
as the imported stock on hand was eXhaus ted,
we should have to depend on blockade-running
10 obtain the chemical element necessary to
enable the nation to wash its clothes and raise
its bread and cakes. In the event OF such a war
soda ash would 90 up to two dollars pound.
Indeed, it could not be cot at any price. Our
people would eXpirte with widespread distress
their folly in not having encouraged and esta-
bllshed the manufacture of this article of prime
and indispensable necessity, at least to the point
OF independence of foreign supply.
But soda ash has gone up half cent pound.
1t is a new tluctuation, which we simply wish
to employ in urging the solemn duty to make
this nation independent of Great Britain for the
! comfort of its social and domestic life. The
tiuctuation in the price OF soda ash in 1866 was
between 81 cents the pound and l23 cents. During
much OF that time, the profit the British manu-
tacturers and importers made out of us ranged
between 200 and 400 per cent Money
inOrdinate profits to foreigners 10 have
Of the soda ash manufacture in at least
eight different States, and to have
secured a permanently low and steady
price of the article in all the American
markets. This rise OF half cent pound-a
British tax on every glass, soap, paper, and
cotton manufacturer in this country-will not
excite protest. How wise it would be for these
manufacturers, quitting forever their chronic
protests against a tariff on soda ash to unite in
demanding one that should Immediately estab-
hsh the manufacture here and save them for
ever from these inevitable fluctuations in the
price OF the foreign article, and the eXtravagant
profits from which only home competition be-
tween established producers saves the consumer.