Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-24
lBY CABLE TO THE DIsPArcH.l


LIVERPOOL, March 2S-[ Copyright. J.
trusts. A corner has been firmly fixed in
fire bricks and fire clay, and the iron
makers and others who use these articles are
already bowling over an advance of Is to 20
per cent in prices. The Coal Trust which,
with capital of e1OO, 900, 600, was to have
made the biggest American corner seem
small, has not got beyond the stage of nego-
tiation. Some of the greatest coal masters
will have nothing to do with it, and it will
probably fzzle. The threatened Paper
Trust is likely to have an end equally ig-
nominous.
The tin plate manufacturers in South
Wales, Staffordshire and Worcestershire are
making desperate efforts to conceal from the
world, and especially from the knowledge
of their customers in the United States, that
they are endeavoring to form trust with
the object of sending up prices.
NEED NOT WORRY.
The fact is undeniable, but it need not
cause much alarm in America. The Stat
fordshire and Worcestershire people, who
make chiefly large outside Sheets in which
there is not excessive competition, would
gladly combine, but they are poWerless to
influence the market seriously without the
cooperation of South Wales, which they
are not likely to secure.
The South Wales manufacturers would
like nothing better than a big trust, but
they have too many worries on their hands.
Their riValries are too bitter, their competi-
tion with each other too keen and the num-
Der of new works constantly being erected
too many to permit of that absolute unity
which alone would make the proposed
scheme success
They fear, too, that the formation of a
trust and the consequent large increase in
the price of tin plates would inevitably en-
courage those patriotic Americans who
maintain that there is no sound reason why
an article for which they pay millions of
dollars a year should not be made in the
United States. In public the manufacturers,
especially the Welshmen, talk confidently
OF the impossibllity of tin plates being made
in America, because the manufacture in
wolves an unusual proportion of hard labor,
at which Americans are no good, but in
private the men speak less positively.
A WHOLESOME DREAD.
They know that the complaints from
America of the quality of the goods are
well founded. They are constantly in
mortal dread of an increase in the import
duty, and they know that if Americans ever
decide to give money and brains to the
establishment of the tin plate industry in
the United States, South Wales would soon
have to take second place. They are also
perfectly well aware that the hand labor
difficulty is all moonshiue
Their consciences should, and probably
do, tell them that they have for years
treated their men so badly that there would
be little difficulty in inducing thousands of
skilled workmen to emigrate to America.
Not a week passes in South Wales With
out labor dispute, caused almost invari-
ably by the attempts Of the manufacturers
TO swindle the workmen out of fair wages.
Coercion and oppression are never absent
from the tin plate trade, and were the men
not fairly organized they would be utterly
ground down.
At the moment of cabling, the men en-
gagged in big manufactory at Morristown
are out on strike against a mean and cum
ming attempt by the employer to manipu-
late prices in manner which would trans
fer from the poor mans pocket to the rich
mans purse something like SIS. 900 annu-
ally, and if the employer succeeds in this
struggle it is estimated that the annual loss
10 Welsh workmeR will amount to $780,
600.
PHILANTHROPIC MANUFACTURERS.
OF course these philanthropic t1nplate
makers do not want to add greatly to the
price of plates. Their object is to render
themselves independent of the wicked mid
dleman, especially the bad Liverpool men
who had for too long gained riches at their
expense. At present this could be done
comfortably by an increase of 1 shilling per
box. Then, say these modest manufactur-
ers, will follow the tinplate millennium.
The maker will get fair return for his
capital, the workmen will enjoy good wages
and constant employment, and above all,
there will be no more complaints from the
United States about the quality of plates.
because master and men will be with each
other in producing the best possible article.
Surely, it is argued, these bountiful bene-
hts would be cheaply purchased for a
shilling a box, an impost which the con-
sumer would scarcely feel.
The Salt Trust people, however, said sim |
liar pretty things at first and have since |
raised prices 30 to 40 per cent.