The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-07-04

metal otherwise than by electric batteries,
two and one-half cents FER pound" Pos.
sessing that dubious clearness which the
ignorant, careless or designing congress
man is sometimes able to give to statutory
phraseology, these words do not aptly
describe the merchandise which the franz
ers of the law had in mind. They were,
however, understood as placing duty of
two and one-half cents per pound upon
the tin plates of commerce, and under
this encouragement, several tin mills were
started in this country. Block tin was
on the free list and the high price of for
eign tin plates justified a considerable
outlay for the development of this branch
of industry. In 1878 it was discovered
that the tariff on tin plates was not col
lected in accordance with the understand
ing of the manufacturers or of the franz
ers of the law. Secretary Sherman
decided that the duty of one and one
tenth cents per pound con tin in plates
or sheets had reference not to pure tin,
but to iron plates coated with tin, and for
a remedy referred the complaining makers
of tin plates to congress. English tin
plates had been selling at twelve dollars
box, but as soon as the American max
ers put their goods on the market and the
tariff was again construed in the interest
of the canning industries and other con-
sumers, the English makers dropped the
price to $3.50 per box. The American
makers could not compete with this low
price and had to give up the business.
After two or three years of idleness, the
price went up to nine dollars and the
American mills started up again, but they
had hardly got their goods on the market
before the prices dropped to seven dollars,
then to six and finally to five dollars and
fifty cents. Home production ceased
again and has never been resumed.
This discrimination against tin plates
is so peculiar and so much at variance
with the rule followed in almost every
other instance that it seems plain that
the principle of protection is violated in
this case in the interest of other industries.
The rule which the tariff makers profess
to follow is to increase the rate of duty
on any given article, like iron, according
as additional labor or expense gives it adj
ditional value. Bar iron bears a higher
rate than pig iron, sheet iron than bar
iron, and galvanized sheet iron than black
sheet iron. On the sheet iron used in
making tin plates, before revision, the
duty was one and three-fourths cents per
pound, but when this same iron came into
the country with the added cost, in labor
and material, of timing, the duty charged
was only one and one-tenth cents per
pound. A similar discrimination exists
in the revised tariff. There was time,
not many years ago, when only Engfsh
steel was considered fit for carriage
springs, tools, agricultural implements,
etc. Had steel received the encourage
ment" that has been given to tin plates,
American manufacturers would still be
buying foreign article, just as they are
still dependent on England for tin. The
advantage of obtaining at home any ar
ticle suited to their wants in quality and
cheapness, is appreciated by every Amer.
lean manufacturer. The production of
two hundred and forty thousand tons OF
tin plates, besides giving work to force
of employees that would represent a popu-
lation of nearly hundred thousand peo
pie, would call for the labor put into the
production of three hundred thousand
tons of pig iron, mining million and a
quarter tons of coal, cutting twenty-five
million feet of lumber and long list OF
other expenditures for labor and material
Competition and improvements in manu-
facture would soon bring the price of tin
down to proper level just as has beer
the case with other protected articles
1t by no means follows that the tariff
for a reasonable protection and encourage
ment would be added to the price of tir
plates. Business rivalry, skill and inge
nuity would soon settle that matter in ia
vor of the consumer, as it has done in
hundreds of other cases.
The reason why tin plates have neve
been made here is obvious the reason
why there is no industry to protect il
clear. AS many people use iron, steel
sugar, rice, cottons and woolens as us
tin. The people consuming highly pro
tected articles of every day necessity ar
as numerous compared with the peopl
manufacturing those articles as would b
the case in the production of 100000 ton
, of tin. Reasoning after this fashion agains
protection to tin plates, as some journal
are doing, is as absurd as it is shallow an,
aippant. Tin plate making in this coun
try, is fairly entitled to just protection
, and the reason why it has been denie'
seems plainly attributable to the powe
and selfshness of other industries, and {
no better defined or more sufficient causes
A Novel Bridge.