The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1882-12-29

turn out TO be "nothing but leaves" to be
blown away and forgotten before another
moon wakes and wancs, but lei us hope
otherwise, and thus hoping, we wish our
readers, big and little, old and young, one
and all, a Happy New Year!
A Protest TO Congress from Hartford
County.
Atamccting of canncrs at IIavre dc Grace,
last Saturday, a committee was appointed to
procure signatures to petition to Congress
protesting against an increase in the duty on
tin plate, AS recommended by the report of
the Tariff Commission nov before Congress
The same evening the Deer Creek Farmers
Club discussed the proposed increase of tariff
and appointed II committee, consisting Of
Messrs. b. Silver, DR., George e. Silver and
Johns II. Janney, to proceed to Washington
in person and protest against the consumma-
ton of an act which would he a heavy blow to
the canned goods industry Of our county
The Deer Creek Club committee were in
structed not only 10 protest against an in
crease of duty, but to urge that tin plate
should be admitted free of duty.
Senator German has received II Communi-
cation from Messrs. f. l.. Parker q Co. and
Lyon, Carleton & Co., of Baltimore, which
are among the largest firms in this country
engaged in the importation of tin plate. The
Senator has laid the matter before the Senate
finance committee, who have promised to
consider it.
The present rate of duty on tin is $1.10
per box, and it is sought to double this One
third of all the tin in The world is from Great
Britain Tin ore, however has been found
in Southern California Idaho, and in some
of the Eastern States, but not in sufficient
quantities TO supply The demand Of this
country, and IN increase Of tariff, or any tar.
if at all on this useful metal, is therefore
merely for the benefit of two or three indi-
viduals and against the interests of everybody
else.
At the present prices the tin required for Il
If the duty is doubled the price of lin will
also be doubled II is estimated that there
were 100000 cases of canned goods packed
in Hartford county this year. Thus the in
creased tax upon Hartford county Gamers
alone, at four cents per case, would reach a
total of 100000. One firm, that of Mcssrs.
George W. Baker e. Sons, of this county,
packed during the season lately ended, no
less than 10000 cases. The additional cX-
pense to them at the proposed rate ofincrcasc,
would amount to 50 400
Nor is this the only point at which it
touches the people of our county. Tin enters
into the manufacture of so many indspcnsa-
bic household articles, that an increase of
duty upon it, involving as it would, an in
crease of price of everything manufactured
from il, would be a tax OF the most onerous
character upon every household in the United
States
1t is difficult to see what useful object
could possibly be subserved by increasing the
duty upon an article found in such small
quantities in this country, and one which we
are compelled to have ut any cost-unless
some one has discovered Il deposit of tin in
this country and wishes to create monopoly
in the metal, as has been done with so much
success in other things.
The Baltimore ,St1, Of Monday has the
following excellent article on the subject:
The tariff commission, in shaping their sug-
gestons for new tariff list, unfortunately
adopted for their guidance the principle Of "dis-
elimination" instead of the principle of relief.
This discrimination, in accordance with the
ways of protectionsts, is professedly for the
hcneiit OF American manufacturers as against
foreigners, but is in fact in the interest of some
Americans against other Americans-Pittsburg
iron manufacturers now going into the tin bus
mess, for example, us against Baltimore manu-.
iacturers Of canned goods. Tinplatc is nccessa
riy the raw material of all manufacturers who
use tin at all, and should in any wisely.co
structed tariff be admitted at our ports duty
free. Numerous indispensable articles used in
the household, and by the poor far more than
by the rich, are made of it. Its price, there
fore, enters directly into the cost of living. Not
only so, but tinplatG is the material of which
the cans used by hundreds of establishments
engaged in the canning business all over the
United States are made. vast industry, pro-
ducing an excellent article of food, is concerned
in the price of this material. The consumers of
canned oysters, canned peaches, canned toma-
toes, canned meats, canned corn, ETC., are still
more concerned, since any increase of the tax on
tinplate means more than corresponding in
crease in the price of cheap and necessary art-
Gle of food. Baltimore does an immense bust
ness in canning, for use in less favored regions,
the great variety of fresh edibles for which its
markets are so famous Other sections of the
country, from Maine to Texas, are engaged in
similar enterprises, all of which are dependent
for their success largely upon the cost of the tin
of which the all-important containing vessel is
manufactured. Yet in the face of these facts
the tariff commission propose to double the
duty on tinpate AT present il is one and one
tenth cents per pound. The commission, acting,
it isalleged, solely IN the interest of certain
Pittsburg iron men who wish to try the business
of making tinplates, propose to raise the tariff
tax to two and two-tenths cents per pound. 1t
is a wholly uncalled for procedure. What the
country wants and hoped for from the tariff
commission is a reduction of the present bur-
dens on business not an increase Those not
engaged in the business of manufacturing
who indeed, constitute the great mass of the
people-the consumers, want the necessaries of
life made as cheap as possible. They are not
specially concerned to see the manufacture of
tinplate begun in this country, ITO be profitable
il must be sustained at the cost of an additional
tax of one and one-tenh cents ON each pound
of a material with which the poor can not dis
pense If they would. 1t is unmistakable that
the elections of November last were a call
among other thngs-for lower tariff in the
necessities of life. The present Congress may
ignore the fact, but it will result in louder
call of the same character in 1884, which no one
viii dare to misrepresent or ignore.