St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-03-24
A DECREPIT INFANT.

The press dispatches last week told
the.reading public of the formation I'M
der New Jersey charter of the Ma
tional Hat company, with a capital of a
million and a half dollars, which en-
braces all the manufactures of wool
hats in the country. Its promoters as
sure the public that This company is not
trust, but only harmless affair or
ganiZed to correct the oyerproduction
of wool hats in this country; but they
admit that lit is for the mutual benefit
of JObberS and hat manufacturers.
They expect to secure greater economy
III the manufacture and sale of their
hats, and make only the number of hats
required, so as to keep the appetite for
hats uncloyed; and they CONSIDERABLY
assure us that they will produce better
goods at not materially advanced
prices" This should be an item of in
terest to everybody for everybody wears
hats. 1t assures them that they shall
henceforth buy their hats at prices
fixed by the one firm in New York city
which will have the exclusive sale of
all hats turned out by the combination,
and that they shall not be cheap
ened to them by the operation of
that law of supply and demand which
regulates the price, say. of grain and
labor. But they give us the comforting
assurance that the prices will not be
''materially'' enhanced, though, to
speak candidly, there is but little COM
fort in this when one reflects on the
tioIi fx-o f III
can for what they have to sell, and the
conviction that the makers of hats are
not pure philanthropiStS-a IN fact,
but common clay. 1t is also worth re-
marking that MCKINLEY, or "MCKIN-
LEY the benevolent one, "as Mr.. CROTH-
ERS put 1t in his paper to the Twilight
club, looked carefully after the inter-
ests of the hatmakers too, and raised
their protection in his little tariff bill
from Is cents pound and 30 per cent
additional to 3S15 cents pound and 40
per cent additional on all.hats valued at
Do cents a pound. In return for this
the hatmakerS will contribute literally
to the missionary fund which is to be
raised and spent in teaching the people
that "cheap and nasty go together" 1t
will be with the purpose of educating
the people on this line that the hatmak-
ers will advance their prices, but not
materially" so as to preserve the
dear people who wear wool hats from
the decentralization of wearing a cheap
and. consequently, nasty hat.
In this connection the difference of
| opinion between ALEXANDER HAMII..
TON, the father of the American" sys-
| TEN of protection in the United States,
| and the Republican sponsors for tn
system of to-day is striking 1t is a
hundred years ago that HAMILTON sent
| to the First congress his communication
OF the resources and Industries of this
country. In it, speaking of the wool
industry and the adaptation OF the coun-
try to it, he says: There is one branch
| of this industry which may be said to
| be firmly established. That is the man.
ufacture of wool hats" And the con-
| greSs of 1889 ''protected' an industry
that had then passed the infantiIe stage
and attained luSty manhood with q
tax on imported hats of ~ per cent.
| Forthwith came a gradual. progressive
lapse of the hatmakers back to infancy.
or progressive movement forward into
! senility, indicated by a constantly in
creasing tariff, until now the industry
| that was firmly established'' a hundred
years ago cannot live with less than 6