The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-07-24
A STATISTICAL PSEM.

Senator uVooRHEES, in speaking on
the tariff bill on Monday, referred to the
recent STANLEY wedding in London and
the wedding presents of fabulous price.
Among these was the gift of CARNEGIE, q
gift richer and rarer and far more costly
than any than could be afforded by the
Queen of England or the King of Belgium.
The gift was an uncut diamond of such size
ana quality that neither the richest of the
crown jewels of England nor the Moon
stone OF India could surpass it in value.
How came this American king of steel and
iron to have such a diamond? The farmers
OF the United States had paid for that dia
mond ten Thousand times over in the last
twenty years by paying an average duty of
over 80 per cent. on every article of iron
and steel they used, and by paying in
creased rates of freight made necessary by
the high duties on steel and iron rails and
rolling stock. If the pending bill became a
Law the farmer would have to pay on iron
and steel ali increase of duty from As. "a to
BIO per cent.
This statement of mathematical truth
leads the Tribune to say: "Now, the fact is
that when Mr.. CARNEGIE began to make
steel rails, some of our principal railroad
companies were importing steel rails and
paying Sl60 per ton for them. They are
worth now about ST, and except for such
men as Mr.. CARNEGIE. and except for the
American tariff it would be impossible to
get steel rails now from beyond the sea for
less than SIS per ton"
The price OF steel rails has fallen all over
the globe, in Sweden, Russia, England.
France, not because Mr.. CARNEGIE is I'M
thoriZed by law to charge Sl7 more per ton
for the steel rails he sells to Americans
than for those he sells 10 foreigners. but
because the introduction of machinery has
everywhere cheapened the cost of
producing rails. Certainly our tariff
on steel rails does not lower
the price of English steel rails. The price
of English or other foreign steel rails is
about SIS per ton less than ours. MIR. CAR
NEGIE gets from $40 to SIT per ton more for
the steel rails he sells to Americans than
Americans would have to pay If 1t were net
for the tariff In England, the price of
steel rails fell from 80 per ton in 1865 to
SIS per ton in 1856. The lowest price
reached in America in 1856 was s26. The
price has since fiuctuated in both countries.
and the price is usually about SIS per ton
higher here than abroad, the difference
being due to the tariff tax of S17 per ton.
Because it once cost SIPS to make ton of
steel rails which it costs only S27 to make
now, is no argument that the tariff tax de-
creased the cost Machinery diminished
the cost, and the tariff tax was not wholly
able to neutralize sshe Elimination, though
1t increases the cost of steel rails to every
American purchaser by such part of the
Sl1 tax on each ton as CARNEGIE and tho
other barons can combine to exact. And
with the whole world, excepting our own
country, buying steel rails at about $40 per
ton, tie Tribune says we should have to pay
SO per ton were it not for our tariff
The Tribune says: "Again, agricultural
implements are cheaper considering their
effectiveness in this country than they are
in the old country" How grotesquely false
that statement is will appear from the fol-
lowing: The Ann Arbor Agricultural
company advertises in the export edition
of tie Engineering aid mining journal. to
sell agricultural implements to foreigners
as follows.