, 1889-06-06
TIE LEAD PROBLEM.
A MINEH LEPLIEs To Mlt. wRIoHr's
PRESENTATION or THE CASE.
Some of Ills M,stak-s Corrected and .
Strong Argument In Favor Of Pro-
tecti0n or the a me rican Product.

In Sundays issue Of the REVIEW there
appeared u long article upon the uhj"ct
OF the tariff upon lead ores. under the
heading OF "Ihe Other Side" and in
which AIR. g. b. Wright attempts by
plausible but false statement of th, case
to support the present ruling Of the treas.
ury department under which lead ores are
admitted tree Of duty il they contain sll.
Yer or vold OF greater value than the lead.
Mr. Wright begins his article by stating
that he IL citizen of the United States,
but this important fact hardly serms to
Affect the question at issue. However,
Sr. Wright hastens to explain that he
has large personal interests In the Cana
dian lead mines, and this IL certainly of
Importance. tor when this fact Ia consid.
cred, some excuse eau be found for the
very pefverse and wrong headed
view of the Question held by Mr.. Wright.
Also to some extent tor his gross
m,sstatement Of the facts ot the case. Inc
REVIEW mas 70 recently explained the
whole question ut the nd mission of foreign
lead ores tree OF duty uuuer the claim of
greater value in silver or Rod that IL is al.
most unnecessary to again state the case,
.xcrptiOg for the benefit Of Mr.. q. Is.
Wight and any Others who by reason of
their large Interests in foreign lead are
unable to understand the plain facts Of the
OSNcs luz upon ore lS l'I
cents per pound OF lead in thu ore; so that
1t there Is very little lead there would b.
very little duty to pay. MIR. Wright
states tnat "under the present tariff repu--
lation foreigu lead ore IL subject tO u duty
OF $50 per ton." This is not thu case; the
! duty Is only reckOned upon the actual
amount OF lead contained In the ore,
which isa very different thing from u
duty OF $50 upon every uniform
ton of ore which contains any lead what.
ever. Again Mr.. Wright says The lead
owners OF some of the Idaho and Wash.
lnIton mines ask that ore containing ANY
lead, however small u percentage, shall be
deemed lead ore aud subjected to this al
most prohibltory duty. In other words,
the acsiuent OF rich silver or gold qnariz
having trace of lead in 10 should suffice
TO exclude II rom crossing onr borders. ="
lhis is all nonsense. The mine owners
have never attempted to exclude gold or
silver ores which merely contain trace
OF lead; they are simply trying 10 have
the law carried out which places duty
upon lead importations and which law has
been set aside and rem dered of no effect by
an erroneous ruling of the tr. asury de,
partment, This ruling was obtained by
fraud, and under 1t the Unit ed States
| treasury has been d.frauded of over
SI,OOO,OOO duty not collected upon 6S, 800
tons OF lead contained In ore i'm ported free
Of duty last year.
Mr.. Wright admits that he has himself
imported ore containing IS per cent. Of
lead free Of duty. If this is to continue
why not abolish the duty altogether and
let the American lead mines fight it, out
with no protection from competition Of the
lead producers OF the world.
nr. Wright makes the plaintive plea
that only about 500 tons of lead ore have
been inpore1 during the last tr.s yedi
from British Coiumoia and that Oh ne Wa +.
papers (who are usually to biauie) have
greatly exaggerated the shipments. But
Mr.. Wright does not explain why, il the
amount is 80 Insignificant, he should be so
exercised about it. The truth is that there
Is u very large anonnt of lead in Canada
only waiting transportation to be poured
over the border and swamp the American
market. and there is a large Dumoer OF
patriotic citizens most anxious that
there shall he nochaDRe in treas.
ury ruling which countenences a
prohtable form OF smuggling
The present low price of lead is attributed
ny Mr.. Wright to overprodnction, broug ht
about by attempted corneripg of the mar.
ket. and he kindly suggests that the C9ur
uAlene miners regulate or restrict their
production 10 that M!. Wright and others
may more prohtably exploit the mines OF
Canada. 1t IL probable that some time
will elapse aud the world will have grown
considerably older bef re Mr.. Wrivht's 8
remedy will be adopted by American
miners In place of the more simple course
OF insisting upon the exclusion Of foreign
lead by carrying out the PLAIN intent Of
tue Law which placed duty upon 1t.
Snnkanf4 Eulls