Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-02-19
UNPATRIOTIC NEWSPAPERS,
The Chicago Tribune Publishes a
GrCss Falsehood About the
New Tin Industry.
And Other Papers, More Foreign
Than Domestic in Interest, Fall
Into a Like Error.
Truth About the Manufacture OF
Tin Plate by Norton Bros,
Chicago.

The free trade press generally, the Lou
isville Courier Journal particularly, has
reprinted, with gleeful comment, the fol-
lowing from the Chicago Tribune:
I'VE do not see that there is need OF our
mill.boss contemporaries to waste sympa-
thy on Norton Bros, the tin can makers of
Chicago They took imported Welsh iron
plate and caused it to be dipped into pots
of melted tin (also imported) by Welsh
workmen (recently importedt, and when
the plates so made were exposed in the
windows of mill-boss organ under the
American flag, bearing the legend The
Firsv Sheet of American Tin Plate Made
in Chicago by Norton Bros, they accepted
the dubious honors Of the misleading state
ment without protest. AS yet the Nor
ton Bros. have made no tin plate for the
market, and it is yet question whether
they ever will be able to make any lower
rates than those now paid. II they d they
frankly avow that they will use imported
tin; and while the experiment is going on
the American people will be taxed some
thing like S15,000,000 year to sustain it
and others like it.
The most ordinary spirit of patriotism
ought at least to prevent the free-trader
from throwing any Obstacles in the way
of an industry which is trying to make a
start in this co&ntry That even this
slight degree of real Americanism is want
ing among "reformers," and that they
are only too eager to exert all their powers
of villifcation to make the establishment
of American tin plate mills impossible. is
shown by a communication sent by Norton
Bros, to the Chicago Tribune in answer to
its unwaTranted attack upon them. The
letter which is addressed to the Tribune,
says:
1--WE are not politicians nor candidates
for office. We are simply American citi-
zens and Chicago business men with local
pride which we think is shared by the
Tribune. We believe In a duty on tin
plate high enough to induce the Ameri-
can manufacture of all that the country
consumes-not the dipping of imported
black sheets in imported laoCr, but the
manufacture of steel sheets from the ore,
the use of American TN if that can be
obtained and the employment in the bust
ness of American labor. We should not
favor this if we thought that the result
could only be obtained by permenant tax
on The consumers equal to the additional
duty but we expect American engenuity
to devise machinery to do the work which
is now done entirely by hard by the Crudest
processes, and to produce plates at much
less than the English cost. An experience
more than 20 years in similar business
leads us to think that is a reasonable eX-
pectation based on what we and others
have accomplished by machinery in re-
cent years. We think that within three
years or FIVE years at most, American
made plates will be sold here at 81 per
10 ha TN, III cl,
plates of the same quality have been sold
here is "a so. The present price is $3.50.
We think the reduction will not stop at
"a, but with increased experience and
greater competition among home manu-
facturers the prices will continue down
ward.
The statement in your editorial that
we are simply timing English black sheets
is for The moment true, it is practically
misleading. We have no intention Of
continuing the business in this way. We
have nearly finished a complete Siemens
steel furnace and rolling mill at haywood,
and long before the new duty on tin plate
takes effect will be making our own steel
pla es entirely from domestic material and
with American labor. The addition of a
furnace and rolling mill to the industries
of May wood will be appreciated by the
people of that village as a decided gain to
them III many ways.
Your statement that we imported Welsh
laboIers to do tie timing is wholly wrong.
We have not imported a man. A major
itY Of cur workingmen are Welshmen
originally, but they came here to better
their condition years ago. Most Of them
are already naturalized American citizens,
and as ii class they are kind of immi-
giant that the United States gladly well
comes. One CfOur most expert workmen
has been in our employ seven years max
ing cans. He had formerly worked in
Welsh timing works and is pleased to
find work at his old trade. Without ex-
Ception cur hands were all obtained here,
and there are plenty more obtainable who
left the Welch tin works, with their starv-
alton wages, and came here to work in
other business, but will be glad to work
for US and others at their old trade
Your statement that the tin we use is
imported, while true in fact, is misleading
when taken in connection with the almost
universal suppoSition that the English get
their tin at home. At least 80 per cent of
the tin used in plating steel by the English
is obtained by them from Australia or the
Straits of Maiacca. The English mines in
Cornwall bear about the same relation to
the English tin-plate making as the Black
Hills mines do to ours. We can get our
tin from the same place and at the same
price as the English get theirs. The price
of block tir-or pig tin, as it is generally
called-is practically the same in New York
and London. We hope the supply may be
obtained from Dakota, but if that should
not prove available, the building up Of the
tin plate industry will not be checked on
that account. Our firm alone pad nearly
amilliop dollars in 1890 to the English fol
the plates We cut up for tin cans. We
think it would be for the interest of the
country that those plates should be made
heIe. even if we must send to Australia fol
the tin, which you say is only 5 per cent o.
the wlo.e."
Now, will the free trade papers which
have given the litels of The Chicago Tri
bure such wide circulation apologize t.
Messrs. Norton Bros, or at least copy
their PLAIN and interesting statement o