New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-03-28
The salt Duty.

The Salt Duty.
The Patriot of this city having made som.
wild and unfounded statements in regard t.
the salt interest, the following reply, designed
to correct its misrepresentation, and to Civ,
its readers little wholesome light upon ,
subject it has labored so hard to shroud il
darkness, was prepared by one of the salt com
panies of the country. But as it is no mart O
the business of the free traders to aid tn,
people to discover the truth the editor re
fused to publish it:
To the Editor Of the Washington Patriot.
SIR: In your paper Of recent date Their,
are some statements relating to the salt in
terests IN this country, and especially tn,
Salt Company of Onondaga, which we asl
leave to notice in your columns. We have NJ
reason to suppose that you would do us in
territorial injustice, and therefore do not allow
ourselves to doubt that you will give us brie
hearing.
L. You quote Mr.. Stewart, whom you cal
President Of the Saginaw Salt Association, as
saying that the salt duty is an outrage. We
beg to assure you that there is no such person
holding any such relation to the Saginaw salt
interest. The President of the salt company
at that place is II. NJ. Fitzhugh, Esq, gen.
tleman ofgreat responsibility and intelligence,
who lately appeared before the Committee OF
Ways and Means as the true representative
of the Michigan salt manufacturers. IF you
yourself will say that the duty on salt is an
outrage, and will state argumentatively why
it is more SO than the duty ON very many
other things, we will answer you as well as
we are able. In the meantime we shall be
exceedingly obliged if you will look carefully
and candidly over what we have shown, and
what we have said before the Committee of
Ways and means. We hand you a copy of
the proceedings for that purpose.
2. You state in substance that the capital
stock Of our company has risen from sl60, 900
in 1860 and a32O, 900 in 1864 to a valuation
which we now place at "a, SOC, 900, and this
you think exhibits most extraordinary gains
and profits in the salt business. You have
been greatly deceived and misled. The fig
ures, "a, 500 900 represent, with very near
approach to accuracy, the value and cost of
the erections for the manufacture of salt at
Syracuse. But the erections are the private
property of many hundreds of individuals, and
are not represented at all in the stock of our
association. Our monied capital or stock is
another and very different thing. The prin-
ciple on which our company is organized is
the association of the private individuals who
own the salt manufacturing erections, and to
carry on so vast a business we must ALWAYS
have on hand, or must borrow, a very large
cash capital. We are to-day borrowing more
than half million of dollars.
3. But you also say that we have made
annual dividends of from 25 to 200 per cent.
Some one no doubt has told you a most ex-
traordinary tale, tale which excels in ro-
nance anything we have ever seen. Never
theless, we freely admit that if you take the
small cash or working capital with which we
started twelve years ago as the basis of calcu-
lation, the earnings have been large. But
they were made during the war, when the sea
coast and the Mississippi were blockaded,
when we were almost the only domestic salt
interest, and these profits acre independent Of
Atarif nhaterer. II, however, you are willing
to take true and sensible view of the
profits of the salt business as carried on in
our locality, we furnish you the following
statement, and will ask you to accept it as
true, or come among us and examine for your
self: The capital invested in our salt works
added to our capital in cash is nearly six
millions of dollars. Now including all divi-
dends made or earned upon our capital stock
and all rents paid to the owners of the salt
works, the profit of our salt business for the
last twelve years has been less than ten per
cent. per annum, and if we were to strike out
OF the calculation the four years of the war,
when the condition of the salt trade was al
together anomalous, the profit would be less
than seven per cent per annum. This state
ment would be incomplete for the purpose we
have in view, if we did not further assure you
that the entire profits of our business for the
last two years have been less than seven per
cent, or less than three and half per cent
per annm. The sworn evidence of this has
been recently transmitted to the Committee
of Ways and means.
4. Your next statement is that the salt duty
pays only 81 200, 900 to the Government,
while it imposes a direct tax on the people
Of more than 100000 per annum. We
impeach your statement but not your mo-
tives. We beg you to consider that the whole
quantity Of salt consumed in the United States
annually is just about thirty-two millions of
bushels, of fifty-six pounds each and if the
duty Of eighteen cents per one hundred pounds
were imposed not only on foreign salt, but
on all domestic salt also, its amount would be
only a little over $4,000, 900. But if you
should refer to this subject again, we ask you
to show, if you can, that the price of domestic
salt is enhanced by the amount of the duty.
For complete refutation of that idea, we
refer you to the facts and statistics laid be-
fore the Committee Of Ways and Means.
S. We are surprised at your next allega-
ton, which is that we can make salt for
twelve cents bushel which we sell at forty
cents. If this were true, there ought not to
be any tariff on salt, and We should pay a
1Arcyo horypfy for f1,o