The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-08-08
The Reason Why.

There is no tin plate manufactured in the
North.-ArguS and Patriot.
The Mills bill puts tin plate on the
free list. Our democratic contempor-
airy seeks to justify the act. Why is
there "no tin plate manufactured in
the North?" Is it because there are
no tin mines in America? Let us see.
In 1864, with view to encouraging
the making of tin plates in the United
States, congress made the duty "on tin
plates and iron, galvanized or coated
with any metal by electric batteries or
otherwise, two cents and one-half
pound" 1t was the plain intent of the
trainers of the act to provide for the
protection of the manufacture of "ordin-
airy tin plates in this country, as iron,
steel and other articles were protected.
Tin plates, which are thin sheets of
iron coated with tin, from which tin
ware of all kinds is made, with which
roofs are covered, etc., had never been
manufactured in this country. English
makers had a monopoly of the business
of supplying the American market
America had the iron, coal, lead, tai
low, lumber-all the raw materials
in abundance except the pure tin, and
tin forms but very small fraction
from three to ten per cent in cheap
grades and some sixteen per cent in
the best-of the cost of tin plates.
The pure tin could be cheaply imported
from England or continental Europe.
So congress thought the United States
might as well make its own tin plates
as to be sending yearly some twenty
five or thirty million dollars in gold to
England for this article.
Manufactures of tin plates were es-
tablished in Pennsylvania and else
where, with the understanding that the
duty was to be two and one-half cents
a pound. At that time the price was
S12 a box. The new industry was
getting foothold. The duty was suffi-
GENTLY protective. But the great
canning monopolies found that this
protective duty hit them. They were
obliged to pay the enormous sum of
three or four cents a dozen (about one
fourth or one-third of a cent a piece
more for their cans for fruit, oysters,
etc. So these monopoies sought for
means to evade the duty. The act of
1864 provided also for tax of one and
one-tenth cents pound on tin in
sheets or plates" 1t was clear enough
that this provision meant sheets of pure
tin. These are as valueless as tissue
paper for the uses of the ordinary tin
plates of commerce, but this provision
gave the patriotic preservers of fruit
and oysters their opportunity. The
tax of one-fourth of a cent apiece on the
tin cans, they said, was intolerable OPP
preston to the poor people. The pur-
pose of congress, they argued, was to
tax tin plates only one and one-tenth
cents pound, and the tax of two and
one-half cents was intended to be on
an article altogether different from the
tin plates from which their cans or the
poor mans pint cup" is made.
A test case was made up at New
York. 1t was carried to the secretary
of the treasury at Washington and a
ruling thereon procured. The monop-
olists obtained the secretary's assent
to their construction of the act. The
duty on tin plates was thenceforth put
at one and one-tenth cents pound, a
reduction of more than one-half. What
happened? The English makers imme-
diately dropped their prices to $3.50 a
box. The American makers could not
compete with this low price. They
went out of the market and gave up the
business. Then what happened? The
Englishman, having killed off his Amer
lean competitor, andvanced the price
to 50. The American makers started
: up again, but had hardly got their good
on the market before the Englishmar
/ again dropped the price to 81, then Il
r So, and finally to $3.50 again, and agail
) the American maker was squeezed t.
t death. Practically without protection
: from merciless English competition
: American enterprise has never ha