Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-28
AFRAID OF ENGLAND.
Views of Steel Rail Manufacturers on
the Tariff Situation.
OPPOSITION TO A REDUCTION.
The Present Rate Must be Retained to In
sure Prosperity,
WORKMEN HAVE DECIDED OPINIONS.
Prices in Europe Are Very Likely to Take Big Drop
at Any Moment

The steel rail manufacturers in Scranton
join with those OF Pittsbnrg in opposing
any reduction of the present rate of duty
The workmen express similar views.
SCRANTON, February 27.-The PROPOSE
tion of the Ways and Means Committee ot
the Senate to reduce the tariff on steel rails
to $40 per ton of course meets general dis
favor among the managers of the two great
steel industries here, the Lackawanna Iron
and Company and the Scranton Steel
Works, and the matter has been thoroughly
inquired into by them in what way the re,
ductisn could possibly be of any benefit to
the steel industry of the country.
General Manager Edward T. Mofatt, Of
the Lackawanna Company, said: ''The Sen
ate Committees proposed action is unwise;
and if put into force under conditions likely
TO occur, would work considerable injury to
our steel industry"
CAUSE OF THE AGITATION.
This agitation he regarded as the outcome
of the present high price for rails in En-
gland, which was due to an unusual demand
and the advanced rate ior the scarcity of
coke, and SO long as those factors remained,
the American industries could we'll compete
with England, but when demand and cost
OF coke come down, the English rail will
drop also, and If the tariff is reduced to the
amount proposed, there will be nothing to
stop English steel from crowding out the
home product unless the wages Of American
steel workers are brought to the foreign
level. The home manufacturers of steel
rails should be given no reason to fear in
roads on their market by the English mills.
W. W. Scranton, the President of the
Scranton Steel Works, was even more out
spoken. He said: "If the Senate Ways
and Means Committee wants to shut down
all the steel plants in the Eastern part of
America, or force the well-paid steel
workers down to the same level OF wages as
are paid to English mill hands in the same
line Of work, let them reduce the tariff on
steel rails to SO per ton. Nothing would
serve to more thoroughly demoralize the
steel industry in Pennsylvania, in which
there are now millions of dollars invested
and tens of thousands of men employed.
Just at present, however, there isn't much
to fear, but the high prices in England for
rails is liable to drop at any time to the
point when rails were put on board ship in
London for SIS 80.
THE CERTAIN RESULT.
This $40 tariff would not bring rails up
to the present American price when they
would be landed in New York, the ocean
freight being no more than is the railroad
freight from New York TO Scranton. The
Western mills, however, would have the
benefit of the protection which the heavy
railroad charges tor freight would secure
them, buS for the Eastern mills there would
be nothing whatever except to reduce wages
to about one-half what they now are, and
the unusual wage distribution through the
country would only tend to dishearten
workmen, provoke disturbances, and every
way tend to q generalization of an industry
that has advanced to grand proportions, and
is really one Of the foremost in America.
"Wages are the foundation of the price of
every marketable commodity, and the prices
at which these articles sell In different coun-
tries are a measure of the wages paid for the
labor in their production. A combination
of circumstances has forced English steel
rails way beyond their usual prices, but
these are liable to sudden change, and this
would undoubtedly be precipitated the mo-
ment the Senate gave its Endorsement TO the
project making this wholesale reduction in
the duty.
QUALITY THE SAME.
''There is no use in talking about the
better Workmanship is nonsense. There is
very little difference in the quality of the
English and the American rail If new
process is unearthed in England, it does not
remain a secret long. and the same way in
the steel mills of the United States, for all
steel manufacturers have expert chemists
whose duty il is to az once learn the mys-
teries Of new discoveries, and mechanics
who study closely the workings of steel
machinery and appliances. These experts
are constantly on the go from mill to mill.
1 think it would be very bad thing for
Scranton and every other Eastern city that
has extensive steel plants for the tariff on
rails to be reduced in any sum from the
present rate
The two steel mills here produced one
third of the steel output of the United
States last year, and one-sIxth of the product
of the world. They give employment to over
,000 men and boys in the mills and in the
mines that provide them with coal, and
when the coal trade is stagnant. as is the
case Just now, they are the life of the Lacka-
wanna Valley.
One OF the most progressive Board of Trade
men said this afternoon that the Senate
Committee has made q great mistake in
attempting to meddle with this important
item OF tariff duty, and that the proposition
ing of the causes that have raised English
rails to their present high price.
CONDEMNED BY woRKMEN.
The rollers in tine mills and the pitmen
and other leading workers, through their
foreman, this evening. looked at the prOpo-
sition with horror, and regarded it as one
that would bring untold hardships upon the |
American steel rail producer. They con-
demn the measure from every standpoint |
and say the committees action, if presented |
to Congress and made law, would be the |
means of breaking down what is now one of |
the best branches of employment in the |
that requires manhood's best |
strength and endurance and which now,
with all its safeguards of the tariff protec- |
ton that insures good wages, soon wears |
away the life.
There was an earnest hope that the Senate |
Committee would let well enough alone and |
memorials praying them to let the steel rail |
duty untouched will be signed among the |
mill hands and forwarded to Washington |
before the close of the week.