The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-12-14

The March Of Tariff Reform Ideas.

The idol of protection is perishing
in its own temples from the blows of
its former worshipers. 1t was noted
in yesterdays Sun that Mr.. Bent,
president Of the Pennsylvania Steel
Company, which has founded vast
steel making plant at Steelton, near
this city, has declared for free ore
and coal, with reduction of duty
ON pig and steel rails. ut is the
manifest duty of Congress, Mr..
Bent says, "to really protect" Amer
lean industries by relieving their
raw materials of the burdens now
laid upon it. In our business, for
which it is supposed protective
tariff is most especially devised, the
demand for free raw material must
be met, and we are quite prepared
for all the reduction in tariff duties
on manufactured products that an
accession to this demand logically
carries with it." But for the duty
of Is cents ton ON the Bessemer
ore his company will bring to Steel
ton from Cuba at the rate of 1000
600 tons year, it would be perfectly
nrt. al - h.
don in competition with the English
steel-makers. That duty means,
however, an addition of 81 so to the
cost of ton of stefan enhance
ment of price that confines the
American product to the American
market. From it's works at Stcelton
the Pennsylvania Company expects,
Mr.. Bent states, to supply our coast
cities and to reach at small expense
the interior States whose railway
systems have their terminals at these
cities, but it would be another string
to the company's bow if in dull
times it could hope to enter the for
eign market. With view to this,
the president of the Steelton Compa-
ny wants free raw materials and
lower duties all around. 1t accepts,
in word, the principle of the Mills
bill-a fact which illustrates the If
resistible force of the reform ideas
for which Mr.. Cleveland stood in
the campaign of 1888. Simultan-
eously with the appearance of Mr..
Bent's views in the Philadelphia
Record there appeared in the Boston
Journal an open letter from another
captain of industry" Mr.. McFar-
lin, the well-known iron manufactur-
er of Massachusetts, addressed to
Congressman Morse. The latter is
taken to task for resisting New Eng
lands appeal for free ore, coke and
coal Mr.. Morse holds that the ma
tural gas, ores and coal of Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio have caused the de-
cadence of New England's iron in
dustries, and that New England
ought to give up competition with
those States. Mr.. McFarlin shows,
ON the contrary, that it is the tariff
of rs cents per ton ON coal and iron
ore and Sc 70 per ton on pig-iron
that is destroying New England's
iron interests, and not the natural
advantages Of the more Western
States. He cites the names of TWEEN
ty-seyen firms and companies in
Massachusetts that recently signed
petition to Congress for free ore,
coke and coal and lighter duties on
scrap metal, and asks Mr.. Morse
whether something should not be
done by him to relieve them from
the artificial disadvantages created
by the existing tariff. New Eng
land, he asserts, is moving to the
rescue of it's threatened industries,
in spite of the protectionist views of
its Congressman. "We KNOW" he
says, "that deliverance will come.
Day by day we can feel, more and
more perceptibly, the steadily adj
vancing pressure of public sentiment
moving irresistibly to our rescue.
'Vox populi, vox del is good watch
word" This is all very well. Bet
ter late than never. But New Eng
land would have better indicated it's
intelligence by accepting the princi-
pie of the Mills bill in November,
1883. The reasons for tariff reform
were the same then as now. In sue
cumbing at this late day to the tar
if literature that convinced their
workmen year ago the employers
prove themselves slow to see their
own interests Baltimore Sun.