Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-30
PLATE GLASS FACTS.
Result of a Protective Policy on This
Important Industry.
THE GROWTH IN TWENTY YEARS.
Prices Have Steadily Decreased Until Within
the Reach of ALI.
SIGNIFICANCE OF RECENT ORDERS

This fall druggist living in the noun
tain Businesses of Indiana county sent an
order to the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company
for a large sheet of plate glass for his show
window front. 1t was shipped to him from
the works at Tarentum. He does business
in village 20 miles from the county seat,
which is his nearest railroad station. At
Indiana, therefore, the glass was taken
from the car, and in its huge framework OF
wood set up lengthwise in the middle of
wagon, supported by sticks nailed to the
sides of the wagon bed, and in this way
hauled over 20 miles of rough and hllly
country roads to its destination.
Mr.. Alex. Painter, the Pittsburg iron
manufacturer, recently purchased 500
worth of plate glass for the windows Of his
new residence in Allegheny. To spend $500
On window glass for A single house may be
considered luxury, but in the interior
rural town of Clarion, which is only tapped
by single line of rallway-and that mar
row gauge-three residences of country mer-
chants may be seen with plate glass for
window panes.
WHAT PROTECTION DOES.
With two instances like these, it is re-
freshing to be able to- exhibit some advan-
tages of high protective tariff. 1t is the
fashion just now among free trade papers
to cite instances of the increase in price of
certain articles under the workings of the
Mckinley bill. Here is an example of
how prices on an article which used to be q
very expensive form of luxury have de-
creased under tariff schedule that is con-
tinued unchanged In the Mckinley bill.
Captain J. B. Ford, the founder of plate
glass making in the United States, and a
member of the Pittsburg company, says that
where you used to find the consumption of
plate glass confined to large cities, now you
will find almost every county town in the
interior with Its drugstore fitted with plate
glass front. and from two to ten dwelling
houses along its suburban streets furnished
with window panes of plate glass He says
that In city where formerly a few resi-
dences with plate glass windows were
curiosities because of their expense, now
from 30 to 100 or more residences can be
found with plate glass utilized in their con-
struction instead of ordinary window glass.
BLAINE AS PIONEER.
The new use of the beautiful plate for this
purpose is constantly growing. Its high
polish, crystal transparency and extreme
and practicability. One of the men to
adopt it earliest in the United States for
house windows was james G. Blaine. In
building his summer residence at Bar Har-
Dor, Me-, he used the best American plate
in all the window frames, and 1t cost a good
deal more per foot then than now.
For store show windows, the cost of plate
glass has steadily decreased under the policy
of tariff. A store front that would have cost
$500 a few years ago now sells for $3.50.
That lets in the country stores, while the
city stores would have had to have the
article at any price anyhow. High tariff
has therefore been direct blessing to them.
The price of plate glass in the United States
in 1889 had declined to 80 cents per foot.
In 1868 and 1869 1t sold in New York and
Pittsburg for 81 and 81 30 per foot.
TWENTY YEARS OF TARIFF.
The story of how the tariff fostered the
plate glass industry is best read by taking
up some old reference book published before
the business amounted to much on this side
of the ocean. The American Cyclopedia,
for instance, says that in 1870 the entire out
put plate glass in the United States was
1856. $50 worth, in making which 200 hands
were employed. The importations of plate
glass into the United States from France
and England in 1872 were 2. 49,, ,359 square
feet. worth 81 800, ,S57. In 1875 the annual
product of plate glass in all
Europe was little upward of 10, ,0O0, 900
square feet per annum, of which about
4, OOO, 900 feet were made in France. The
Cyclopedia adds: "The industry is limited
to a few large establishments, there being
six each in France and England, and two
each in Germany and Belgium"
Since that Cyclopedia was printed-and
that was a late one-America has worked
wonders, and Pittsburg's environs have
been the scene OF most of them. Only last
April THE DISPATCH printed original
figures showing that the production ofplate
glass in the United States had reached the
enormous aggregate of 9,S43. 1856 feet in one
year.
THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE.
In the same article it was shown that
when improvements then pending were fin
ished, and when new works then projected,
were com pleted, the production wonld reach
ID. 400, 900 feet annually. Those figures are
scarcely realized yet, but since April the
output has increased so rapidly that it is
now nearly II, 900, 900 feet annually. And
only back in 1875 the production Of all
Europe was only 100000 feet The. in