The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1878-02-12

change IN Iue 1a''N 80
subject Of discussion among our manu-
,',,,,srs and working men, at this tme'
REGISTER reporter yesterday called
-, .eversl Of the representative men
t,a, or three leading branches OF bust
and asked their opinions on the
.ra,t As will be seen by what appears
,.,ow Wheeling has heavy amount At
stake.
THE NAIL TRADE
ling the class of business which will be
.t,ac,ed the views Of Mr.. 5. II. WoJd-
M =. the La Belle mil. were asked,
'.g are substantially rs follows: lie
'riaks that the tariff should be let alone,
ID nai,her raised nor lowered, as the
,n,-e fac, of changing it would be osd
,,,,icv at this time, owing 10 the general
n,:..i,n OF business. 1t would be
- Of course, to raise the tariff on
ron. but still if II WAS let severely alone
!, would be best. The greatest objection
which Western nail men ind TO
90. new bill is the lowering
If the rate OF duty on scrap iron from
.iv or seven dollars per ton TO one dollar.
Tbis would enable the Eastern. producers
:, make nails from much cheaper iron
,hsn the " Nestern manufacturers could
Inv owing TO the difference in freight
sni General cost in getting the msterial
- the mil In consequence OF this the
E,stern mills would use large quantities
=, the cheap scrap iron, and those IN the
West could not compete with them.
The Western mills are making but little
money at the preseat rates, and when
the proposed change takes place, they
will be forced TO stop running. Inc sd'
v,gtsge which the Wheeling mills have
i, the WAY o! cost OF coal, &c, would be
more than couuterbslsnced by this -e
dlctIon. The change IN the duty on pig
iron would not materially Affect the
r,, market, as the home product can be
,h,.ired much cheaper than the I'm.
n,r,rd. While Mr.. Woodward thought
That something should be done by the
Western mills IN the way OF protesting
s,sinst the passage OF the new bill, still
he was slrald tha. the protest would not
have much Cfec: upon Congress, and
would not 60 far toward preventing 1t
from becoming a law. To sum up the
u,,,er IN few words, Mr.. Woodward |
,s,t thsl the tariff question WAS like the |
silver question, aud neither should be |
meddled with by Congress.
Tnc office Ct the Beuw0od mill was /.
then visited. In u conversation with Mr.. /
Alex Lsughlin and Ma or Loring. the !.
d.,l being president and the latter secre.
t,rv Of the company, the following was !
o5;ained Mr.. Laughlin liked the new |
tariff with the exception Of the clause |
regarding scrap iron. he thought that
j, would be taken advantage OF by I'M
p5rlers, who would bring into the country,
under the designation Of "scrap lroE,"
frsgments OF railroad bars and consider
sbl, other material which WAS not scrap
n. all. In tact, he thought that even new
snd marketable pig IRON might DO
broken up and come IN under TINS
provision. Of course such method
a, this would be fatal TO the msnuisctur-
o,s Of pig iron ana would destroy their
blHness al once. For II this class OF ma
t,risl could be imported 1T n dollar ton
dItv. no producer OF nails or other simi-
lar articles OF manufactured IRON would
use pig metal At all, out would import
sc-sp. The advantage which the East
e-n men would have would not be very
great, and the advantage which the
Western people have IN coal would shout
cover the difference. Major Loring
agreed with the preceding and added
t,H. ..E uFraRF N o.
lossl iron mcr, III regard 10 this question,
WAS very great, some iayoring II strong
lY and others opposing with
equsl yehemence. He thought
the chiet objection WAS that the words /
"scrap iron would be made TO cover, like
charity. multitude OF sin, and that the
production of pig iron would suffer hesv-
iy in consequence thereof. With this |
exception he had not much fault 10 find !
with the bill.
PHE GLASS TRADE
next came under consideration, and
Messrs. Hobbs, Brockuhier X Co. we're
called upon. and were very frank in say
ing that they were strongly opposed TO
the proposed tsrih. Mr.. Hobbs said that
the tariff should either be left alone at
the present rates, or increased. Cut glass
can slresdy be imported tor less money
than il can be made here. As an exam
pie Of this, Mr.. Hobbs showed some
finely made prisms for chandeliers, which
were Imported from Bohemia. He SAID
thst it would cost more 10 bore the holes
IN the ends TO admit the wire which con-
reCted them 10 each other, in this country,
than the entire expense OF importation.
In msnv OF the foreign manufactures,
the wages paid the men wss only twelve
and half cents per day, while here 1t was
two dollars. MIR. BroCkunier ssid that
The price paid for skilled labor wss 81
ready low enough, aud that he did not
desire 10 see it become any lower IN
justice 10 the men. II however the new
tariff is made lsw, the hesyies: part OF
the burden would tall upon the workmen.
The effect upon the manufacturer; would
Only be temporary, and the loss entsIled
would simply be upon the stock on hand
ST thst time. The wages OF the men
would be reduced in correspondence with |
the reduction Of the duty, snd in sll
PrOoabl!lty there would be trouble be-
tween the employers and employees In
consequence, but the latter would be
compelled 10 yield eventually. At the
present price OF labor and cost of import
Ing such materials rs canRot be
obtained ST home, Mr.. Brock
uiuer said that they could
compete successfully with English snd
Belgian producers, in the South Amerl-
Csn, Mexican and Cuban markets, in the
sale of tumblers, soblets, lamps snd gem
ersl table ware, but If the tariff should
be lowered il would be 8 tough fight TO
hold their own in the American
market. Although the home msn-
uiscturers have gres!
advantage over all others, In pressed
ware of sll kinds, they making larger
quantities IN the same time, from the
same amount OF msterial, and the pro-
Duct being OF higher Quslity. Still.