The Indianapolis journal., 1890-10-01
The Tariff and the Prices of steel Rails.


To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journar
IAN Ancient Chestnut" is the title OF an
editorial article in the Chicago Tribune, of
Sept. 20. in which Mr.. McKinley's idea of
the steel-rail manufacture and its relation
to the tariff is Denounced as untrue. Mr.
McKinley's idea about the decrease in the
price of steel rails is the same as that of all
other protectionists. 1t is lntrenched be-
hind fortress of one hundred years expe-
rience. and surrounded by an array of facts
that will forever hurl back all theories
that may charge upon it. The experience
of the country shows bey yond cavil that the
tariff on steel rails reduced the price on
them. as it has on everything else on which
1t was placed. The Tribune may call this
Chestnut IL it will. but facts cannot be
ceangsd cenfat;an Y the %nrd some
thing that has been related so many times
that few have the courage to hear it
told again. 1t reflects strongly on
the intelligence of the American peo.
pie that some things have to be told
over and over again before some people can
see the point. The Tribune could find no
more appropriate name for the steei-rall
| illustration than a chestnut" for no one
| has ever yet attempted to remove from 1t
| the prickly burr of truth without suffering
| from the operation. 1t is true that the
| steel-rail industry has been the one always
| cited by protectionists to prove that a
| tariff on any article We can make will In
| the end bring the price much lower than
! we had been paying English manufacturers
! for it. This is a fact that one hundred
| years of experience has demonstrated be-
| yond question. But still there are many
| who will not admit that they see 1T. To
the teacher and the brighter members of q
| class, many demonstrations of a problem
| become "chestnuts," as it were. before the
| stupid members can understand 1t. There
are many people still living. who believe
| that the world is fat, and many have
died clinging to the same erroneous idea.
| But the absurdity of such belief has been
| proven plainly to those who have the un-
derstanding to receive it. Thus it will be
| with every other question. There are those
who would deny the truth of the multiple
| cation table, and class it with the chest
nuts "hoary with age" if they thought they
could get follower or gain some partisan
| end thereby.
The editor of the Tribune, in disposing of
the steel-rail illustration. uses language
"hoary with age' and grown gray in the
| service of those who can find nothing bot
| ter. That is. that the tariff is tax and
tends to keep up prices instead of bringing
them down Such statement has neither
| experience nor common sense to uphold it.
and would fall or its own weight If 1T were
not for those who were born to care for 1t
American manufacturers began filling or
ders for steel rails about 1864. The price
then ranged between s1OO and SIP per ton.
From this time till 1888 the duty was S2S
per ton. and the price was continually 60
ing down until it fell as low as $50 per ton.
1t could do nothing else. because American
manufacturers had added millions of tons
to the supply. In the face of this it is sur
prlsing that we have men among US to-day
who will claim that the fundamental idea
of q tariff is to raise prices" The Tribune
claims that the Bessemer method of making
steel was the cause of cheap rails, and that
the American duty retarded rather than
produced the decline. Bessemers mode
1S64-5 steel rails were selling at four times
their present price. If the cheap method
of making steel was designed to bring
down the price of steel rails, why did it not
the Bessemer plan was invented7 1t is
rather singular that this patent alone com
menced lowering the price of steel rails
after it had been in operation
ten years or more. and also at the very
time we commenced making them here.
Ii the new process was to bring down the
price of rails why did 1t not do it before
we commenced making them ourselvesi
From protection view the answer is plain
to be seen. The manufacture of steel rails
was an English monopoly and American
manufacturers made an arrangement with
Mr.. Bess6mer by which he was to receive
$3.50 per ton for the use of his patent.
| Enormous factories were at once built in
this country. and the great industry kept
on it's feet by duty of SIS per ton. thou
sands of men found work in the shops and
thousands more in the mines. the whole
United States was laid with network OF
railroads, commerce became one of the lead
ing industries. fortunes were made and
spent in this country. instead OF across the
ocean. While the industry was foreign
monopoly we sent large sums of money an.
nually to enrich English manufacturer
and paid five times the cost of making rails
and would have been paying it yet had oul
capitalists not been induced to make then
by the duty of $2S per ton.
DUMONT KENNEDY.
Il CRAwFORDsvILLE, Sept. 26.