New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-05-02
SENNE AROTT NODA.

An illustration often disclOscs the meaning
of a measure more clearly than any argument
about abstract principles. This pending Nor
rison tariff-what has it to say about salts OF
soda
We imported last year. Of the carbonates in
Guiding sal-soda and sOda-aSh, 34I251,O2O
hounds, Of the caustic soda 81, 731 800 pounds,
and of other salts of soda 1898, 1919 pounds /;
IN all about Do, ZOO tons For the previous
fiscal wear more details were given of soda-aSh
26725O,SO9 pounds were imported, Of sal
soda % $40 l4O, of caustic So s7s, S96, Of salt
cake 1891, s34, Of bi-carbonate 1,621Oo6, OF
sulnbate 3S4. 800. of siicate JOG, l0l, and of
stannate GC,249 pounds The census of 1850
shows that Of all salts of soda we produce in
this country only about 40,0O0,0OO pounds,
and import about nine-tenths Of all that we
consume.
Nor is there any other material that enters rs
An important element Of the cost into a greater
number of manufactures. With free caustc
soda we might supply the world with soap, but
we send the talow and other fat to England be-
cause the soda is nearly doubled in cost by the
duty. The manufacture OF paper, OF glass, and
many other industries, bear heavy burden
bacause of the cost of these salts of soda. That
Is one side of the question. How did it happen
that Mr.. Morrison did not place the salts of soda
in the free list I
But there is another side. In the far West
are vast deposits of suphatc and carbonate of
soda, deserts and lakes of alkali, mountains of
sulphate of soda almost as pure as ii can be pre-
pared IN England by the first and Most costly
process of Leblanc's invention, AS yet lack of
cheap transportation has prevented the utllza-
fioD of these deposits, but it can hardly be
doubted that the development of these natural
resources will ultimately enable us to export
the salts of soda as largely as we now import
them. Within the last two years the Union
Pacific began to put up works to develop a
wonderful deposit near Laramie. statement
embodied in the census report pron0unceS this
deposit inexhaustiblc, afiirms that the cost of
production will ultimately be such "a to pre-
clude successful competition by the importers,
and looks for product which will supply the
entire soda trade of the United States. Just at
this time, too, as appeared III evidence before
the Tariff Commission, the revolution in Euro
pean manufacture by the adoption of the am
monia process has induced several foreign
manufacturers to transfer their industry to this
W
Syracuse and one at Bay City, Michigan and
these also, if undisturbed until they get fair
footing promise to supply cheap salts of soda
by the manufacture from salt or brine. Surely
Mt such time there is good ground for con-
tinuing the protective duty on an industry so
vastly important. What does Mr. Morrison do
about it j.?
As usual, he plumbers on either view of the
question He does not propose to continue the
present protection. But nc does not put the
salts of soda in the free list. Neither does he
reduce the duties Gu any common sense princi-
pie or in any rational manner.
The average cost of the carbonates imported
last year, worth 1927 800, was 1.2 cents per
pound, and the duty of d of IA cent was about
20 per cent al valorem. This duty Mr.. Nor
risOn does not venture 10 cut down at all. be-