The Press., 1886-09-16
STEEL RAILS.
From g recent speech by Blaine i:

~ AOAA 1VcCAe SPe0cn Dy 0lalne
 In 1860 there were about 88, 900 miles O. railroad in the Uniies States. Not long before there had come the intelligence thai England was beginning to use steel rails Some of our people, anxious to get them paid at the factory ili England E22 gold coin, or $llO per ton. When they added the duties, the first steel rails that were laid ln this country on au average c,,si about $160 to $170 per ton. This went on until 1870. The manufacturers of this country then said to the, government "If you will give us aprotectiVe dnty we can make steel rails in this country. '' Against united protest of the free trade element congress imposed duty of $2S per ton in gold on steel rails. I had the honor of of sharing in the legislation. What was the result? In fifteen years from that date the manufacturers of the United States had turned out 10, ,OOO, 900 tons of steel rails; enOugh for 1O0, GOO miles of railway. That so rapidly reduced the price that in this very last year steel rails sold down to within fifty cents nf the duty alone of 1870, so that rails were furnished at the shop at $28. 50 ton where they had originally. cost $160 to $170 ton {; and while we were doing this we increa ed the steel product of other kinds, every
 
 the same period we produced in this conn., try 15, GOO, ,OOO tons of ingo, and other st, ell. as shown by the official statistics, and TO- GOO, 600 tons of steel rails. If the cost of that be averaged, it will be found to be about $50 a ton. We started at very high price and kept decreasing, so that the average was about $50. Therefore that product sold in this country for $5O0,- 900, 900, and tho 15, GOO, GOO toms of iEnot and other steel, at the same price; sold for $750, ,00O, GOO, so that the steel product from Julv, 1870, to July, 1880, amounted st the selling price in this country to ST. 25O, ,OOO, 900. ?. st'.'.'.fs 4' l'''''. 7l''
 What did labor get out of that? They say that these steel manufacterers made a great sum. No doubt they did. They went into an experiment which took enormous capital and they had to make a great plant. Put it at the very outside and they made for themselves $250. GOO, ,0O0. They left, therefore, $1 ,000, GOO, GOO to be distributed to the strong arms and the brawny hands of the skilled labor which made that steel. England never would have .rsduOed the price. It was competi- tiOn in this country that did it. z So that not only was $1 ,OO0, ,OO0, 900 paid out to the lah0r of the country hut the railroads of the conhtry got their steel rails vastly cheaper than they ever could have got them if they had bese left dependent D England. t,..s- t5a.sq,. c. .s..'.f .T. a..t
 If that policy does not vindlcate itself then it is impossible that any industrial policy can vindicate itself. It has enabled the United States to have larger mileage of railway to-day than all the rest of the world put together. It could not have been done except for a protective tariff. The ultimate cause lay in that $28 of du- ty. That brought the money from the pocket of oapitaliats, that started the ener- gy and enterprise of the inventor, quick ened the arm of labor and led to results that have been the surprise and ,admira- ton of the world. iH .-i,1.e 4Hi -..