The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-01-19
A CHAPTER ON FREE RAW MA
TERIAL.

Chicago, adopted memorial asking
that copper be placed on the free list.
They say that the import duty now in
force is not required to protect home
producers, but its sole and only effect
is to enable specplatots in copper to
artificially enhance its value by export
ing large quantities atta much lower
price than that which they demand for
home consumption. The duty is thus
made to serve only the purposes of
speculation and monopoly, and isa great
and continuous detriment to the legi-
innate. business of manufacturers and
consumers.
This throws some light on the way
the wealthy copper operators--a great
part of the wealth of Boston draws its
surplus from copper dividends-have
manipulated the tariff so as to create
an odious monopoly American cop
per actually selling in London at a less
price than in the United States. That
will do as a sample of protection to
American manufacturers! The copper
ore miners are about the poorest paid
class of American workmen if we eX-
pect the workers in iron ore, also high
fy protected for the benefit of the great
cdplIdlloIo WIN dlO IullLhh6 oA AOh
trust that enables them to gobble a
good share of the pro .ectiOn that legi-
timately belongs to the furnace men.
This prOhibitory duty on copper has
destroyed our trade with Chill, one OF
the most prosperous of South American
countries. Before the war we shipped
large quantities of furniture, cotton
and woolen goods, and large variety
of merchandise to Chill, receiving in
return copper ore which was manufac-
tured in American smelling works.
The copper combination succeeded at
the outbreak of the civil war, in getting
a duty on copper ores which shut out
the ores of Chilli A New York letter
in the Chicago Tribune tells what fol-
lowed. 1t is a lengthy extract, but
throws light on the way the South
American trade, about which we are
now so anxious, was diverted from this
country:
Now, take notice of what followed.
Our ships were still carrying American
goods to Chilli, because the Chilians
preferred American manufactures.
But along came this duty against Chill
ian ores, and the American ship-master
could no longer bring these ores as a
return cargo to the United States.
What one such Yankee captain did tells
the story of all, and American work
men will do well to read it. He was an
enterprising Yankee and not to be
bluffed all at once. He took on a cargo
of Chilian ores as usual, and,
as the tariff forbade him to bring
these ores here, he carried them
10 in WoInc nbnra hn sold
them, and, finding no cargo for home,
came back in ballast, 1t was not Ia very
paying voyage, but being used to the
business he took ON another cargo OF
American manufactures for Chill, cut
down his sailors wages little, because
as he had made but very small profit on
his voyage he couldn't afford to pay as
much as formerly, and back he went to
Valparaiso. .,
The sailors wages, you notice, went
down at once, but as under the high du-
ty no more ores coul come in from
Chill the American smelling works,
long established, had to be shut up and
abandoned. The American working
men in these smelling works did not
have their wages cut down; they were
turned out on the street because there
was no more ore to smelt. The Michi
gan copper lords, however; put up the
price of copper, but they did not raise
the wages of their wOrkmen. If
these had asked for share
of the high tariff plunder
the copper lords would have turned
them out and put in the poor devils
who had Just lost work byathe closing
of the Baltimore and Boston smelling
works. The high duty on copper ores !
protected" the copper lords, not only !
against Chilian ores, but against Amer |
ican workingmen, you see.
Well, the Yankee captain, not easily
discouraged, took another load of =,
American furniture, American cotton !
and woOlen goods, etc, to Chill; he took
another return cargo of Chilian ore to |
Wales; he came back home again in !
ballast and made poor voyage. But
by that time the Englishmen, who are ,
not fools, either, saw their chance. |
They sent out to Chili'in English ships
English chairs, English furniture, Eng
lish cotton and wOOlen goods, and
brought back in the English ships to
England the ores with which
these English goods were paid for.
w hCA GhC dhhVC OopthAI SoluO
back with bis third cargo of
Yankee manufac ures to Chilli he found
the English goods had stocked the mar
ket and the English ships were there
to carry the ores to England. He got
no freight home, and he carried no
more American goods to Chili-neither
he nor any other Yankee captain.
That trade was killed as dead as a door
nail or as last summers mosquitoes.
That is to say-the American work
men in the smelling works were out of
work, the American sailors on the Yam
kee ships were out, th9 large number of
American wOrkmen IN furniture facto-
ries, cotton and woOlen mills, etc, which
had supplied this trade, were out.
But the capitalist owners of the
Michigan copper mines went on chip
ping out pure native copper with CHS
els, and not only that, for years they
charged the biggest kind of price for
their copper in the United States and
sold the surplus of their rich mines in
England to foreigners, at considera-
bly, lower price than they condescended
to accept from their fellow. citizens or
from their government, which needed
much copper during the war.
England's trade with Chill has so
grown that the English have now a
semi-weekly line of the largest steamers
in the world'Tunning between England
and Valparaiso, besides "tramps," all
carrying English goods to Chill.