Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-02-18
STEEL RINGS
Artfnlly Thrown Around the Necks Of
the People.
The Web That was Woven by the
Tariff Commission
To Aid the Spiders in Catching More
Industrious Flies.
Robbing the Farmers in the Interest
OF Bloated Monopolics.
TcincInnatl Enquirer Special !


on mo to-day in behalf of the tool and
implement manufactures In the west.
who are menaced by the new tariff
schedule. He said M follows:
"Crueiblc steel Is the technical name
for cast-steel. IL Is used by manuiac-
turers OF machinery In large amounts,
and there Is considerable competition
among those manufacturers, especially
In tools, saws, reapiDg machines ana
articles of that kind, which have To be
made in well-methodized and closely
organized establishments in order TO
secure the economy which bring the
article within the reach Of the farmer,
who Is in general n close buyer oil
whatever he has To spend money Tor
West of Pittsburg the prin-
cIpal manufactures are In machinery
designed for the use of farmers, and
towns like Canton aud Springfield in
Ohio and Richmond ia Indiana get
their populations and Influences from
farmers machine work, where crucible
steel il the most expensive feature.
These factories sometimes employ rs
many 1000 or 1000 persons. Hitherto
they have had high duty on steel to
pay. with constantly increasing com
petition, making their profits extreme
~ close. Such works naturally have
large expenses, M the purchaser has to
be hunted down, found on his farm or
in his hamlet, and he frequently pays
for his machine in instruments W. he
raises the money out of the ground by
it's use This involves commissions
and when one town springs up around
reaper factory the next town wants
To engage in the same business.
A I'm. NIL lftf n 81
Rod which led to the formation of the
tariff commission was loud one from
the western manufacturers, who were
called upon to sell machines cheap
and yet pay expensive prices, fixed at
Pittshurg and near IL, for the east steel.
~ was supposed that the tariff com
mission would take up the question in
the spirit OF honesty and fairness,
and relieve the farmers, who must
finally pay all these burdens, from n
portion of large expense In their ma
chinery. American farmers in the
west can no longer use with profit the
old scythe and sickle, they plant, cult
tivate, reap and thrash Ivy improved
machinery. The improvements are
constant, and often set aside one form
of machine long In use and produce
another one, thereby making the far
mer the perpetual outlayer of money
to hold himself In the place he keeps,
Of the most enlightened cultivators Of
the world. The steel men, whose
headquarters, as | have said, are about
prttsburg, put old sharpers into the
commission, with the object OF cheat
ing the farmer. aud IL possible the ny
ricultural improvement maker, 80 IN
TO increase the consumption of those
classes of steel which are required for
reapers, mowers, etc.
'"rhe consequence has been that the
new tariff schedule, on which congress
il to act, makes n showing to reduce
the tariff rates on steel, while on those
grades of steel which are used in q
large amounts are really put up cx-
cessively. The manner In which this
has been done Ia such that the bunko
game or three-card monte is not more
dexteriously played than the game oi
tariff In the hands of men who care
nothing about the general progress OF
our manufacturers, but want very much
to make wrought metal cost more
steel, under tho present sytem o
making IL, IL merely raw material
and under the Besscmer and other In
uovations has been monopoli2ed with
in very few hands. While the growtl
of our employment shops Throughout
the far west has vastly increased tn
use of steel Impending tariff
carrying CONSERVATION Ia the machine
builders of the west aud the farmer
are also finding out that whatevc
changes are put up strikes AT them AN,
that the centre of the raw material II
and near Pittsburg has projected th
new tariff schedule with the end of ex
tending the SPIDERS web aud catching
more industrious flies"
| had n talk yesterday with two gen
ilemen whose respectable firms us
more of this crucihlc or cast-steel thai
any institutions in America. Hot
are agricultural implement makers
might almost despair of making
subject like this tntelligiblo To the gen
era, reader except for the ingeniou
device of an interview, which hop
will break up the dry bulk of tai
subject, Said |
"'rcll me now, in round numbers
what Is the increase IN the cost of ste'
Ia the proposed tariff over the preseu
one :"
well, on 100 tons oi steel the il
creased duty viii be Si,0oh and ie'