Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1891-02-14
ENJOYING M'KiNLEYlsM.

TIE Menhaden Oil Trust Meets and Moves
| Up Prices-A Tsrin story of the McKin'
Icy Stripe-Ono Industry Aided BY Nc
Kinley In Preying Upon Another-rhs
Leather Men Under the Tariff Wheel.
The people Of this country have nc
idea how far trusts and trust methods
have been developed in this tariff land.
They do not know all the hooks and
crannies OF industry into which the
trust, usually the tariff trust, has crept
and built for itself home in which To
thrive and grow fat. Nor do they know
all that is going on in these same indus
tries in the way of appropriating the
spoils which the Mckinley tariff law
puts in their reach.
One of these industries is that OF
making what is called menhaden oil.
The men engaged in this industry
have an association which they call the
Menhaden Oil and Guano Association.
The annual convention of this body was
recently held in New York, and one re-
suit of this meeting was thus stated by
the New York Oil, Paint and Drug Re-
porter:
The menhaden oil manufacturers are de-
termlned to get better price for their prod
uct and since their meeting In this city last
week, they have concluded that they might
as well extend their plans for regulating the
market so as to include the stock now on
hand. Accordingly they have fixed prices
that are about two cents per gallon above
those quoted week ago.
There is tariff story behind this
menhaden oil trust which deserves to
be told, as it will illustrate the charac-
ter and working of the Mckinley tariff.
1t is a fair sample of the ways that are
dark and tricks that are vain" in every
page of the tariff law; and it shows how
McKinley's new brood of protected in
fants are plotting behind their cradles
and devising means to squeeze the pro-
tective pop bottle and satisfy their
greed.
The menhaden is fish similar to a
herring which is very abundant in sum
mer on our coast from Maine to New
Jersey. Menhaden are taken in nets
in great numbers, it being reported at
this New York meeting that the num-
bers taken during the past season was
$4,000, 0O0 These fish are used for
making oil, and the refuse from the oil
press is used in making fertilizers. The
menhaden are also used in their natural
state as fertilizers.
The menhaden oil trust, as was re-
ported by the secretary at the New
York meeting, embraces 2S factories,
employing 4,36s men, and having a
capital of 50, 800, 900. The industry pro-
duces annually about 5000, 900 gallons
of oil, of which nearly one-third is ex-
ported.
The principal use of menhaden oil is
for illuminating purposes in mines, and
it is used to some extent in finishing
sole leather. The better classes of
leather, however, are treated with a
product called degras, which is collect
ed from the water in which greasy
wool has been washed. This degras, or
brown grease, as the leather dressers
call it, has in the past fifteen years come
to be recognized as necessity in dress
ing upper leather. 1t gives softer fin
ish than Menhaden oil, which is no
longer used for finishing upper leather.
The gum in this oil frequently comes
out Of the leather in few months and
collects on the surface; and then the
leather is worth less than the raw hide
of which it was made. The superiority
of the dcgras in currying leather Is SO
great that it has taken the place of
menhaden oil, and the result has been
hfft4r 'pe6prc - '-.a'- '.i-'ns tn,' m ~.
But this result has not pleased the
Menhaden Oil Association, or trust;
and hence they invoke the help of our
protectionist lawmakers, asking them
to put prohibitory duty on degras and
thus compel the leather curriers' to use
menhaden oil and produce an inferior
quality of leather for the people. Three
years ago they asked for such duty
from the Senate committee and it was
given them; but as that bill did not be-
come law they were still without the
protection" for which they were clam
oring.
Degras was admitted under the old
law as waste at 10 per cent. ad valorem,
and the Mills bill placed it on the free
list. When the present Congress assem-
bled Mckinley had barely got his tariff
mill running when the menhaden trust
again put in an appearance in the per-
son of its president, who said he felt
'that we are entitled to protection
against the importation of foreign
greases which are produced by the EN-
ployment of cheap labor in foreign
Countries lie objected to the impor-
tation of degras as follows: "The result
upon the fsh-oil market, which is large
ly attributable to the free importation
of this special grease, has been to re-
duce the price of fish-oil so materially
that many have abandoned the business,
and all are suffering from the effects OF
this foreign competitor. He asked for
duty of IL cent per pound on degras,
the same as in the Senate bill two years
ago As the old 10 per cent duty was
equal to only about one-fifth of cent
per pound, the duty asked for woulc
have been a clear increase of $50 pei
cent. The unblushing character of this
request will be seen at once when it il
stated that nearly all the degras used il
our leather industry is imported, only
about 5 per cent. being produced in thi
country.
The injustice Of this proposed dut.
was so great that the leather industr,
of the country was at once aroused 4
petition was presented from the leathe
men OF Chicago and Wisconsin in favo
of free degras, and another to the sam
effect came from the great shoe an
leather industries of Massachusetts,
signed by about 200 firms representa-
more than slO0, 100000 of annual proc
uct
Then there was the usual pretty tart
souabble; but in a tariff fight the do
that asks for protection always gets tn
bone, while the dog that asks to be le
alone gets kicked and cuffed by tn
givers Of tariff bones. The great leathe
Industry asked to be let alone, to hav
no higher duty or no duty at all on d.
gras. II Is the very nature Of McKii
leyism to kick industries which max
such free trade requests, and the leathe