The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-16
PROTECTION, PRICES, AND WAGES.

cent, while at the same time maintaining
the rate of wages paid employees, When any
person or paper becomes so determined not
to believe the truth as to discard and deny
established facts by declaring them impossi-
BILE it is no longer enough to simply prove
| them true but to demonstrate that they are
| likewise possible, process never resorted to
except to convert premeditated stu
pidity The News Journal probably
knows that the price of manufac-
tured articles in America has greatly
declined during the past ten or twelve years,
and that too, while protected to "a ruinous
degree" according to the opposition. 1t has
been maintained by good, bad and indif-
ferent Democratic authority that the Ameri-
can system of protective tariff has fostered
monopolies, and that these monopolies are
grown so powerful as to do as they please;
can realize whatever profits they wish, rang
ing from 10 to $50 per cent. A rolling-mill,
according to this authority, is scarcely worth
attention, that does not annually realize to
its owners full 100 per cent on every dollar
invested million dollar plant should
realize a million dollars profit neat.
| That some of them do not,
and some of them occasionally fail
to make any profit whatever goes for
naught. 1t is the fault of the owners if they
do not make all they want to, for they have
it all in their own hands, can fix prices to
suit themselves and regulate profits accord
ing to their needs. A few figures from trust
worthy sources will suffice to answer these
reckless and false statements.
The salt monopoly has repeatedly been
cited as one OF the most constituencies of all.
1t has had everything according to its wish.
1t could put prices up or down whenever
and to whatever degree it chose. Certainly,
if this be true it would hardly voluntarily
reduce the price of its products.
In 1866 the average price per
barrel was $3.50, and the following
shows the average price per barrel every
other year from that time up to the present:
1868, 81. s5 1870 $1.32; 1872 LAC; 1874, 81 10,
| 1875, $1.05 1873, IS cents; 1880, rs cents;
1882, IA cents.
In other words, twelve years ago salt cost,
by the barrel just $50 per cent. more than it
did last year, So much for the salt mo-
nopoly Plate glass has enjoyed a protective
| tariff of about so per cent. During the past
ten years the cost has been reduced from
81. so to 81 per square foot decrease of just.
60 per cent. In 1878 glass cost
$50 per cent. more than it does now.
In the matter of steel rail manufacturers, a
monopoly" that "enjoys 100 per cent. profit
on investment" (?) and one that has come
in for generous share of abuse at the hands
of tree-traders. The same features are OBJ
servable in the market price of their pro-
ducts Bessemer steel rails were first made
in this country in 1867, but not largely until
1870. Up to that time the English controlled
our market and prices, and we had to pay
them $3.50 in gold per ton. After the open
| ing of the first stee-rail mill here they were
compelled to reduce their prices, and in 1870
they were sold in England for $5037 gold,
equal to 1913 in our currency. At that
price they could be sent to New York and
| freight paid at a cost of 1858 per ton, with no
duty Since then our American mills have
furnished our railroads with over 5000, 900
tons, at an average cost of $50 per ton in cur
rency. This great business employs over
| 10000 American workmen, pays over
s., 900 yearly in wages, and has fur
nished us steel rails for ten years at an aver
age price little less than the English price
in 1870. In the matter of cast steel, the
English make had been sold here for twenty
years at sixteen to eighteen cents per pound,
and none was made here. Under a higher
tariff, our steel makers began work about
1862 on large scale, at Pittsburg and else
where, and the same quality came down
the war, our cast steel was sold at
thirty-two cents, while British steel
was held at forty-ive cents, thus saving the
government large sums in its war consump-
ton, and relieving US from a dangerous de-
pendence upon foreign power The British
| steel manufacturers now sell their products
in Paris and other European markets for
twelve and a half cents, while in New York
! they sell the same at ten and half cents,
the difference being made for the obvious
purpose of breaking down American steel
enterprises The same features are as potent
in other manufactured articles, formerly i'm
ported, but now made almost wholly at
home. Enough has been cited to sustain
the claim made by protectionists and denied
by free-traders.
Now as to the impossibilitY of protected