The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-01-06
fOFFICIAL PAPER.1
Friday 1anrsr, 6, 1882
PROTECTION.

Prof Perry, of Williams College, lately
delivered a lecture on the tariff question
before the the Free Trade Club of Brook
lyn. In that lecture Prof. Perry said.
In 1870 we had tax on imported Besse-
mer steel rails, amounting to 40 per cent.
That tax was put on to raise the price of
steel rails in this country. There were
then seven Companies in the country who
rolled those steel rails They held the
patent, and had full control of the business
They pretended that they wanted this tariff
to bring revenue INTO the treasury of the
/ Government. We shall see how true was
this claim. The seven companies sent
i memorial to the Committee on WAYS and
Means of Congress marked confidential y
They did not want the world to know
what they were doing. 1t is character
/ istic of protection that it prefers to
work in dark and hidden ways to
keep the people in ignorance of what is
doing in their matters. They don't want
the man who pays the taxes to know how
they are got out of him. So you viii find
the duties levied in the protective tariff
| list are very perplexing. Although their
memorial was marked confidential" l
happened to know what it said, and what
these Bessemer steel wanted.
They said: We are able to
roll all the Bessemer steel rails which the
country needs, and we ask for exceptional
protection, as the particular industry is
new in this country. They asked that a
duty of two cents per pound be imposed
on all imported steel rails What for? 1t /
was not that the government should derive |
a revenue from the duty thus levied, for
they said, we can roll all the rails the coun-
try needs Their sole and only reason was |
to raise the price of their rails and put |
money into their own pockets, and not
into the Treasury of the Government The |
railroad would therefore cost more to
build, having to pay an increased price
for rails, and every man, woman and child
riding on the railroad would have to help
pay that extra price. They did not intend
that one cent should go into the govern
ment Golfers, but into their own pockets,
and it was to be wrung from the public
using the railroads. The Committee on
Ways and Means would not grant the sew
en- companies all they asked. for they
thought it was too much. So the COM
mittee imposed a duty of one and
quarter cents per pound on import
ed rails, which would amount to $2S peri
ton. There are about four rails to the
ton. and that would make the duty 81 per
rail. That was eleven years ago. and the
law is still on the statute books. The
seven companies have increased to
eleven. A short time ago i made a calcu-
lation and found that of the rails used in
the country since that law was passed, the
people had paid six times as much into the
pockets Of these companies as had been
paid under the duty, into the pockets of
the government, and that six times as
much had been paid by the men, women f,
and children using the railroads Is that {
fair and decent? It shows how much of ,
truth there was in the way that the tariff i
was to bring money into the Treasury of
,he Government You leave the devil
ilone, in brown study for thousand
Years. and he could not devise anything t
more outrageous What happened? 1t
ell out that the Vulcan Steel Company of {
1t. Louis, became embarrassed. The other 6
teel companies were beginning to fear
,ver production, that too many steel rails
we're being manufactured, more than the /
country could use, SO the other companies Q
greed to pay the Vulcan Company So $
100 year to let its shops stand idle. and t