The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-06-21
The Strikes and the Tariff.
AN INDIANA SENATOR ON THE EVILS OF
TOO MUCH PROTECTION.
indianapolis Special to the St. Louis Repub-
lican

indianapolis Special to the St. Louis Repub
lican.]
Ex-senator Joseph E. Mcdonald, in a
carefully prepared interview, to-day fully
agrees with Hon. A. S. Hewitt as per Asso-
ciated Press telegram, in attributing the
strike in the iron mills primarily to the
present high tariff and he is of the
opinion that the country is now in
a position to clearly see the effect OF
high tariff on its industries The
demonstration is positive that protection
does not protect. The iron manufacturers
are especially concerned in the advocacy OF
| protection theories. Iron is in this coun-
try doubiy protection. There is in the first
place an import duty on iron of 100 per
cent. There is in the second place protec-
| tion by patents on steel rails. All the pat
ents on these rails are owned by the compa-
nies forming the American Iron and Steel
Association; yet the wages of the men en-
pioyed in the thirteen mills owned by them
| do not rise. Their profits resulting from
/ the immense boom in railroad building the
past two years has not Injured to the benefit
of the laborers, Notwithstanding the fact
that the cost of living has appreciated in
| every way. The generosity of the manufac-
turers is not
| EQUAL TO THE OCCASION.
He cites a recent suit in the Philadelphia
courts, to which allusion had been made by
| Mr.. Hewitt in his tariff speech. J. Edgar
Thompson, the great Pennsylvania iron and
| railroad King, at his death, left a will in
which he gave to his wife the profits aris-
| ing from his interest in large steel rail
mill in which he was leading stakeholder.
| The widow was asked to be content with the
| dividends. She demurred, and demanded
| her share of the actual profits. The divi-
dends amounted to 10 or II per cent. 1t
was developed in the suit that the company
had reserved, after declaring a handsome
dividend, the remainder of the profits for
enlarging the plan and general reinvest-
| ment in the business, and that instead of
the profits being 10 or II per cent, they
were actually 300 per cent, and the court
sustained her demand yet the wages of the
men employed in the mill were at bottom
figures.
Mr.. Mcdonald does not think that it was
anomalous for men to strike on a falling mar
ket.
GREAT BODIES MOVE SLOWLY,
and with the extraordinary high prices for
all necessaries OF life aud the fact staring
the workmen in the face that the profits OF
their toll to the mill owners had been tre-
mendous, it was rather natural that they
should strike and strike hard. He thinks
the manufacturers are in good position to
hold up their end of the fight for the reason
that railroad building had suddenly stopped
and they will be enabled to work off their
surplus stock. Crude iron which has been
going into steel rails can now be put into
other manufactures Consequently the end
of the strike can not be seen or predicted.
Il is a fact that steel rails by the patent pro-
cess can be made as cheaply, it not more
cheaply, than the old iron rails; yet the
manufacturers, through the protection given
them by their patents and the high tariff,
have not abated their prices and their profits
swell independent of the ordinary rule Of
supply and demand. In these profits, how
ever, only the stockholders had share.
The cause of the high prices of food he at
tributed to our short crop, and believes there
viii be a revival of business if the fall crop
bs good one. The short crop in America
and the fair crop in Europe had the effect
Of
CUTTING OFF EXPORTS,
because wheat and pork and other Ameri-
can products can not today be sold in En-