Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-05-29
MINe.o~.nERs GROWING RICH.

MINE.ow.NERs GROWING RICH
Facts Prom II . Mines and Laek az Fact
Before the WAvs and Means Committee
The Uselessness Of Protection on Iron Or
How the PeopAe Arc Enr1ehing . Few
BIen-like the Daughters Of the Horse
Leech They Cry, ssCa I've. Give!"
1t is always instruct. We to compare the
condition of any industr v as brought out
in the trade journal ant daily papers
with its condition as represented before
the Ways and Means Committee ii
Washington.
The latest case in point is that of the
iron mining industry. Facts have lately
ers of iron mines are piling up immense
fortunes. The Pittsburgh Commercial
Gazette, which is paper in full sympa-
thy with the high protectionists, printed
recently the following piece of news:
1.-THE earnings of some of the Lake Su-
perior iron ore companies have been
something phenomenal during the past
few months. One company with CAPT
tai stock of $500, 600 is reported to have
cleared in fifteen months over 500, 900,
or considerable more than the entire
capital. Stock at the par value of $25
has gone up until it is held at SITS a
share, which is not at all strange when
the earning capacity of the company is
considered ssr.rs-lafg ef
Here is an increase of 600 per cent
in the value of the property OF men who
say they need protection still for their
infant industry, and that they can not
compete with the ores OF far-away
Spain. What cost them one dollar to
buy is now worth seven dollars; and
every dollar they put into the property
now yields 81. IL a year.
One would think that men who reap
such profits would be able to protect
their own labor instead of asking Con-
gress to pass laws to protect it. They
patiently gather up the statistics of the
wages paid to miners in Spain and carry
these figures to Mr.. McKinley's commit
tee to prove that the American miner
needs protection from the distant Span
lard. The men who make these great
profits out of their iron miners told Mr..
Mckinley that they were decidedly in
favor of building up our own country. I"
OF course they are! Who would not
be in favor of building up his own coun-
try when that country gives him laws
which enable him to make more than
one hundred per cept. on his money?
But these iron mines in the North
west are not entirely domestic indus
tries It is said that about one-fourth
of their product is taken from mines
owned by body of capitalists in Ber-
lin, Germany, called the Schlesinger
syndicate. These shrewd Germans have
seen that the Americans are peculiar
people who tax themselves in order that
their mine owners may have a soft snap
and grow rich, and so they determined
to have finger in the pie too and get
some of the good things that we are
passing around every year under the de-
fusion that it all goes to american
labor" The Germans saw their chance,
formed syndicate and bought up a
number of these mines; and they. too,
are growing rich under the beautiful
system of protection to infant indus
tries.
Another company which is reaping
enormous profits out of iron mines is
the Metropolitan Iron and Land Com
pany of Michigan, a large part of the
stock of which is owned in Massachu-
sets. In January dividend of twenty
six per cent. was paid by this company;
on April 90 further dividend of twelve
per cent was paid; and in addition to
this stock dividend of twenty-five per
cent. was declared at the same time.
That is to say, instead of paying out the
full dividend in money, the stock OF
each stakeholder was increased by
twenty-five per cent. Future dividends
will, of course, be calculated upon the
basis of the stock thus watered; and the
dividends which are paid will, by this
watering process, be disguised in
such way that the people will, not
be able to see at once what vast
profits they are helping these mine
owners to make. The stockholders pay
in not one cent of extra money, and yet
they will receive dividends hereafter
upon one-fourth more of stock than they
paid for. That is one way to diguise
from tho people the effect of the high
protection they continue to vote to these
mine-ownerS.
If we sum up now the dividends paid
out by this company, including the stock
dividend. we get total of thirteen per
cent The shares of the company COM
mand an enormous premium. The par
value is SIS, and the last sale which is
known was for $65. But so far as is
known there have been no recent sales.
People who have such good thing, and
public 80 ready to tax itself for their
benefit, do not readily part with their
property. They have the best Bessemer
ore in the country-this ore being what
is used in producing steel. The demand
for the ores OF this company is 50 great
that the larger part of the product for
this year is already sold in advance.
And who is it that Is paying the money
to enrich these ore companies?
The consumer, of course.
The steel manufacturer buys the ore
and when he sells the finished steel the
cost for the ore must be covered, and a
handsome profit must be kept by him
for manufacturing the steel. The steel
is then made into thousand forms OF
machinery, many of which find their way
to the farm, many to the workshop; but
wherever they go they carry with them
the increased price originally put on the
ore at the mines by the working of our
tariff laws. 1t is the same old story
over again OF the enrichment of the few
at the expense of the many. The bless
ings of nature fall into the hands of the
rich, and we proceed to make these
blessings greater by adding the bless
ing of protection. As if the strong were
not sufficiently strong already, we SAP
on ~ in