Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1884-01-02
DUTY ON IRON.
Opinion of Rolling.Mill Man on
Hewitt's Late Letter.

The Statesman and the Business Man
Don't Seem to Agree Very Much
.-.Free Trade or No
Change.
CHICAGO Jan. 1.-The attention of o. w.
Potter. president of the North Chicago
Rolling-Mill company, was drawn to letter
written by the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt on the
present stagnation in the iron business. Mr.
Hewitt thought that ''the duties on all kinds
of iron should never exceed the lowest possible
point which, in the time of depression, will
protect the domestic market from the food
of iron which otherwise might be poured
into its lap" Mr. Potter said that the views
were strange ones for such man as Mr.
Hewitt to express. One statement which Mr..
Hewitt made was neither fair nor just to
the steel manufacturers. Mr.. Hewitt said
that "when the supply exceeds the demand
prices fall, and in connection with this
statement added that "priorto 1878, under
the highest tariff ever known in this conntIy,
we had long period of depression in the
iron business" Mr. Potter explained that
the depression was due to the fact that there
was little demand for steel rails. "From
1878 to 1879" he said, 1--WE did not pay our
shareholders 81 on their stocks; but the
period from $50 to 1883 was prosperous
time for men engaged in the steel and iror
business
"Mr. Hewitt says that the profits of thedc-
nestle business then became excessive, and
the owners of existing works proceeded to en-
large their capacity to the uttermoSt in order
to gather this harvest of great profits Mr..
Hewitt knows that this is not true He knows
that the works were enlarged because the
railroad people, through Poor, of New
York had the Bessemer manufacturers
brought before the ways and means COM
mlttee. The manufacturers then pledged
themselves to meet the demand for
steel rails rather than have the duty taken
off and have British manufacturers brought
into competition with our people. With this
object i'll view no less than S25, 900, 900 was
put into steel-works. The capacity of the
mills was simply enlarged to make good the
promise that American manufactures would
take care of the domestic demand for rails"
Mr.. Potter explained the subsequent de-
crease in the demand and the straits to which
American manufacturers were pushed in the
matter of low prices, all of which he as.
cribed to the redemption of the pledge before
mentioned
In regard to the second point which Mr..
Hewitt made, "that the duties on all kinds of
iron should never exceed the lowest possible
point which in the time of depression will
protect the domestic markell" Mr. Potter
denied that 'the reduction of extra protec-
tive duties to a reasonable standard of specific
duties was the only practicable means of
avoiding an unhealthy expansion Of business
when it is active" Four Bessemer mills,
Mr.. Potter said, had been shut down
because they could not be maintained
at present prices, and only three could
afford to run. 1t was Mr.. Hewitts
idea that there was no opportunity for better
prices it would seem plain to anybody that it
would be unfair unless be could go further
than he proposed and compel the transporta-
tion to this country of the same conditions of
labor, raw material, etc., as existed on the
other side of the water. Mr.. Hewitt wanted
the American manufacturer to send his rails
abroad, and the American manufacturer
would be only too happy to do that if Mr.
Hewitt would be good enough to explain how
such thing could possibly be done.
To sell rails in a foreign market, Mr. Pot
ter explained, the Chicago manufacturer
would have to make them at SIS ton, for
u IdliS were SOlu mere at go a ton
the transportation must have cost S. a ton,
and consequently they must have been
made in Liverpool for $23 ton. In order
to sell Chicago rails in Liverpool for S23
ton they would have to be made here for
SIS ton, in view of the cost of transporta-
ton. Mr.. Potter would like to ask Mr.
Hewitt, and producers of iron ore, and repre-
sentatixes of the laboring class, whether-it,
was possible to get the industry down to that
point where rails could be MANUFACTURED here
for S. or Sc ton less than the price for
which they could be made in Liverpool The
condition of the industry in England, he said,
was worse than in America. Mr.. Potter felt
free to say that his company favored
protection even to prohibition, re
lying on home competition to reduce
prices for home consumption. Free trade
meant selling steel rails in Chicago at $1S
ton, and to do this would be as impossible as
it would to live without air.
When the depression began to be felt Mr..
Hewitt's mill was one of the first to be closed
up, Mr.. Hewitt having been outbid by Bel
gian competitors.
In conclusion Mr.. Potter said that If there
was to be a reduction in the duties on iron
there should be free trade pure and simple, as
advocated by Frank Hurd. There should be
10 incidental protection-no tariff for
revenue only" Such course would bring
about either the millennium or chaos. = Mr..
Potter was inclined to think that the result
would be chaos. 49, 81 - -