Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-08-20
A NEW TRUST IN SIGHT,

The Plate-GlasS Men DalIying With En-
glishmen to Form a Trust-The Senate
Committee Helps the Scheme BY In
creased Duties-EnormOus Profits of the
Industry, and Its Enormous Cost to the
Country.
One fact by itself may not be interest
ing; but two facts which are related to
one another may be of high interest to
u.s. Especially if these two facts are
brought to our notice at the same time
from independent sources.
Here is a striking example in point.
The Senate Finance Committee makes
its report giving reasons for the changes
in the Tariff bill. In regard to the in
creased duty on plate-glass the commit
tee says: The additional duty imposed
by the proviso in this paragraph is made
necessary to encourage the domestic
manufacture of more expensive class
of goods which is now being imported"
That is one fact 1t goes into the
newspapers; but on the very day when
it appears other papers are printing a
dispatch from Pittsburgh about "A Big
Plate-Glass Syndicate'-which is only
another name for trust. The dispatch
says: John Pitcairn, of the Pittsburgh
Plate-Glass Company, is in England ne
gotiating for the close of options on all
the plate-glass concerns in the United
States"
The dispatch then goes on to enlarge
upon the highly prosperous condition
and rosy outlook of our plate-glass in
dustry: ''The business has assumed
enormous proportions and the profits of
the Pittsburgh concern alone are not far
from 81, 900, 900 year. Besides seeking
to control existing factories, the En-
glishmen have also joined in the erec-
tion OF a new plant at Irwin, Pa, for
which site was secured on Monday.
Irwin is about eighteen miles from
Pittsburgh on the Pennsylvania rail-
roads main line This plant will be
the largest of the kind in the world and
its erection is necessary to supply the
demand for plate glass. The Pittsburgh
company, whose output last year was
about Is, 900, 900 feet, is still working on
orders received last year, and is behind
on its contract at that, so that it is con-
sidered that the future of the trade in
AMERICA is full of promise"
Put those two facts together and they
become extremely yinteresting-the SEN
ate committee bolStering up an indus
try at the same time that a single fac
tory of that industry is clearing almost
l,0o0, 900 a year, and when that indus
try is carrying on negotiations with En-
glish capitalists in order to form a trust
and add still further TO their enormous
profts
Tariff making is verify curious
game!
We imported last year S1,113,4 ,4Ss
worth of plate-glass, not including sill
vered plates for mirrors. In other words,
our impppta tinns were but slightly in
excess of the net prof1ys Of this single
Pittsburgh establishment. The high
tariff on plate-glass crushed out several
years ago the last OF the foreign houses
in New York which imported it; and
the Senate comes forward with its hum
bug pretense of increasing the duty in
| order to give more effective protection
to this thriving American industry.
| This Pittsburgh concern, which is the
largest plate-glass establishment in the
country, cleared S4A per cent. on its
capital. With the existing tariff, which
| gives il 144 per cent. protection on the
| large sizes, II i6 not remarkable that
! high profits should be realized. What
is remarkable is that the Senate COM
mittee should offer to pamper this rich
and promising concern by granting ad-
ditional protection. The popularity
| about tariff makers is that they never
know ghere TO ston. It ia no wonder
thatwe sometimes heat the more eau
tious pratectionist say; :'0ur people
are carrying this thing too far
! Rut this dispatch contains another
statement which is worthy oil atUentlon.
The writer of the dispatch was evident
iy protectionist for ne put the follow
ing observation into it: Until few
years ago very nearly all of the plate
glass used in America was imported and
was sold at about S1.59 foot. Now the
home manufacture has grown to such a
degree that importations have ceased
almost completely and the price has
come down to 65 to 90 cents foot. ac-
cording to trade, which means, what q
glorious thing protection isl