Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-11-03
CAmmerfes.

The crying need in Los Angeles county
is more canneries, to make a market fo,
deciduous fruits, which are now rottinp
on the trees, as the price paid will not
cover the picking.
On account of competition with can.
neries in the East, who have the advan.
tage of cheaper coal and cheaper labor.
the margin of profit in the canning busi-
ness in this State is not as large as gen
orally supposed.
How does any farmer have such a
tremendous desire to deplete his pocket
in order that he may have a duty of sew
enty-five cents per ton collected on coal.
which not only throttles many industries
in the county, but especially the can
neries.
And while not pound of tin plate is
made in the United States, there is q
tariff Of thirty per cent, which only
serves to still further choke off any one
thinking OF starting cannery.
The canner is satisfied with profit oi
~ cents per can. Now, the tin in one
can costs about 2 cents, 80 the cost with
out the duty would be less than / i
cents. In other words, if the duty on tin
were removed the Gamer could make 2
cents per can where he now makes \,
cents-an increase of 25 per cent. in the
per centage of profit, difference tina,
would decide the Gamer in many in.
stances the question of whether or not te
build his cahnery. But it is said if We
should take this duty off tin plate the
different tin plate manufacturers in Eng
land, France and Germany would com.
bine and raise their price 80 per cent.
and then We would be no better off than
we are now, and We don't pay the duty
anyway, as they, the foreigners, pay il
as they would license to sell in ou,
markets. Now, to illustrate the fallacy
OF this most absurd theory let us suppose
that an American cannery cables
to their foreign purchasing agent te
purchase 10000 pounds Of tin plate
Certainly no one thinks that that com.
mission agent gets different quotations
on tin plates from the different makers
varying as to whether his principal is q
Yankee, an Australian or a Mexican, OF
because the Yankee pays 80 per cent
and the Mexican 100 per cent. and the
Australian no duty at all, in the least af
fects the prices quoted by the different
foreign manufacturers who are each try.
ing to secure the order by quoting the
lowest price for the tin plate to be deliv.
cred say at Liverpool. If they should
combine to sell to the Mexican for less
than the American on account of the
extra duty he had to pay they might no,
get cost price for their tin plate and be-
sides if the commission agent who
bought for his Mexican and Yankee eli
ents would make it a point that the
manufacturers would not know for whom
he was buying, when an American wal
the buyer he would merely specify de-
livery at Liverpool dock.
| So that if the manufacturers of tir
plate raised their price it would have tt
be raised from the necessity of the cast
to every buyer in the market.
Now America consumes about one
tenth of the entire product, 80 no one car
reason that the removal of the impor
duty that we charge would cause thu
manufacturer to raise the price of tin t
every nation in the world. If 80 ther
every time Mexico or Australia changed
their tariff then the price of tin wonld g
up or down in the United States. Ther
If such an insignificant event allows then
to raise their price why do they wait fo
our action? Why don't they advance
the rate thirty per cent. Immediately
Is it not absured to conceive of hun
dreds OF factories, owned by people o
various nations, each in jealous compe
titi IA OF the other, and yet all combining