The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1884-02-28
EDITORIAL MATTER,
No Need of Meddling with the
ErOn Tariff.
THE TARIFF FIGHT OF THE FUTURE.

mittee, were George H. Ely,of Cleve-
land, Ohio, and B. T. Jones of Pitts
burg Pennsylvania, who spoke against
the admission of iron ore i.ee of duty.
Mr.. Ely said that he represented
manufacturing institutions that had
fully fifty millions of dollars invested
in the iron business, and that If the
"Morrison bill'' was passed it would
"close them up and wipe out their
capital"
As we have often before said in
these columns the iron problem is in
course of rapid solution by natural
agencies, and if let alone the ore and
manufactured article will soon re-
treat to prices that will bear proper
proportion to the cost of production
and give fair remuneration to both
labor and capital.
The struggle now going on is one
for existence on the part of the old
mines where the cost of production of
ton of pig iron is from eighteen to
twenty-four dollars, while the output
Of many of the virgin mines of Geor-
gia, Alabama, North Carolina, Ten
nessee and the Virginias, ranges in
cost between nine and sixteen dollars
as shown by the representatives OF
the various States in the great tariff
debate in the Senate last year. The
! fipht is and must be for some time to
come, for the central of the home
market, and while heavy protective
tariff may serve as a temporary ex-
pedient to hold up prices by keeping
out foreign competition on the sea
board, the daily increasing develop
ment of the mines in the States re-
ferred to, and the opening up oi
mines in Kansas, Texas, Oregon, Mis-
souri, Arkansas and the Indian Terri
tory, will in the near future create
such q glut in the market as viii
compel the "blowing out" of furnaces
all over the country or the maintain
ence of business by such reduction
| of prices as will enable the new mine:
to work off their ores at such prices
as will yield handsome profits ane
yet at the same time SO far underblC
the old furnaces as to force them tt
suspend operations entirely. 1t is il
fact only question of "the surviva
of the fttest," and question to bt
settled so soon that it seems to us th'
very acme of folly for Democratic
statesmen to fritter away valuable
time and hazard grand political op
portunitier in the endeavor to antici
pate by Legislation a work that is ii
course ofrapid consummation througl
natural agencies; especially when w
reflect that this work which is being
accomplished by natural order O
thinps. and that must in the denou
ment bring ruin to vast industrial re
gions, will, in the event of Congress
sional intermeddling at the presen
time, be attributed to the malign III
fuence of Democratic Legislation.
If the iron tariff is let severel
alone by our Democratic people fc
the present all that they seek to ac
complish will come to pass withou
: the record of vote upon the subjec
r at either end of the capital, and
! will not be many years before tn
. tables are turned, and Pennsylvani;
: New York, Massachusetts, New Jel
. sey, Maryland and Connecticut wi
1 be clamoring in Congress for tn
repeal of the duties upon iron ore
iron bars and slabs, steel ingots, stet
bars and all other classes of metalli
/ ''raw material" in order to force dow
4 the prices of the products or the me-
: mines Of the South and West by pu
/ ting them in competition with tn
{ free-entry products Of Russia, Eng
5 land, Norway, Sweden, Turke,
e France, Germany and other nation
p The manufactures of the Easter
5 sea-board can only maintain the
J, supremacy by keeping down til
: price Of raw-material, and realizin
I 1 as they do that the spinning an
7 weaving of oottons must very SOC
X be centred in the cotton growing n
: gions on account of the incurable az
i vantages in freights enjoyed by thi
n section, and the impossibility of NEE
), ing the emergency by tariff legisl
e ton on account Of the absolute COZ
{. troll of cheap, home supply that Il
4 South enjoys, they will make fier'
III fight for the maintainence of supr
e macy in the manufacture of too
s. machinery and other metal industri
i i. by keeping down the price of ra
e + material in the only practicable ma
is is ner; that is by putting all of t
re- re- metals upon the free list 50 as
= force the new mines to lay down th'