Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-10-01

PIoUA, O., Sept. 23.-president Hicks
OF the Cincinnati Corrugating COMPANY
and Vice-president Orr of the same com.
pany, who is also a bro.her-in-law OF
Calvin s. Brice, have been placed by
political exigency and protective enthu.
siasm in an embarrassing predicament.
They have got to go into the tin-plate
business, whether they will or not, and
whether they can or can't, and keep il
up, at any rate, until the campaign is
over, or take the responsibility of pos
sibly bringing about the defeat of
Mckinley and the smashup of protec.
ton. Major II. s. Sternberger, a Demo
crat Of local prominence, shares embar-
rassment with Messrs. Hicks and Orr to
the extent of being loaded up with a
contract for an expensive tin roof for
his new barn, which cheap shingles
would have covered just as WELL
CAMPAIGN BLUFF.
The trouble all started in campaign
bluff, little flyer undertaken by Mr..
Hicks to give flip to the celebration in
Piqua lRst week in honor of Mckinley.
A week before the meeting the CORFU
eating company announced in the local
papers that it had gone into the tin
plate business and that badges for the
faithful McKinleyites were to be made
from the first tin run from its mill.
TIN ROOF FOR A DEMOCRATS BARN.
Major Sternberger thought he knew
bluff worth two of that, and promptly
went out to the mills and ordered
american tin plate" enough to cover
his new barn, to be delivered at the
regular market price within two weeks.
The corrugating company took the
order without wink and thought they
had the laugh on Sternberger. Tin
enough to cover one barn can be made
on kitchen stove with kettle. But
the mischief of it was that news of the
affair, owing to several little matters not
connected with the main issue, got
abroad much more quickly than Presi-
dent Hicks and Vice-president Orr had
anticipated, and now, with election dav
still six weeks off, orders for tons Of
American tin plate" have already been
received.
MUST MEET ORDERS FOR PROJECTIONS
SAKE.
A perfect deluge of them is threatened
from all parts of the country, and Mr..
Hicks must either keep up his bluff and
lose a lot OF money making tin plate
and selling 1t for less than it costs him
or back down and give away the whole
american tin" business and Major Nc
klnley's chance of election to boot.
The Cincinnati Corrugating Company
is controlled by the same people who
run the Piqua Rolling Mill. The shops
of both institutions are side by side on
the outskirts Of Piqua. The corrurating
company has contracted to take the
whole product Of the rolling mill and
finds itself with large surplus of raw
material which il cannot profltably
handle in its corrugating department.
IL established a galvanizing department
to use up part of this surplus. There
are two galvanizing pots, and in the
space in the mill between them small
round pot set in "a brick pit. This was
built to receiveand melt up into "spelter"
compound of tin, lead and other
metals, the refuse from the galvanizing
process. 1t is still doing service as a
spelter pot, but, besides that, it consti-
tutes the machinery of the only purely
American tin industry in existence.
MT: Hicks says that Mr.. Orr has had
the idea of going into the tint plate bust
ness Tor some time as means of work.
ing off some more of the surplus prod
uct OF the rolling mill. Piqua, however,
never heard OF the new enterprise until
about the time posters announcing the
mckinley meeting were put up around
town. Then the energy with which the
tin-plate idea was developed, especially
on the part of Mr.. Hicks, was something
phenomenal.
TIN MEDALS FOR REPUBLICANS.
The birth of the new infant industry
,ad not been announced more than two
ays when it was given out that the
Tst batch of the plate had been COM
Ieted and that Mr.. Hicks had gone
Nth it to Cincinnati to have it coined
uto nice round medals for Republicans
o wear. On late train that night
oack came Mr.. Hicks triumphant and
with his satchel full of the medals.
They were about two inches in diameter
and were stamped made of Ohio steel
and California tin, Piqua, 1891. Me-
Kinley and Protection"
They were scattered everywhere next
day, fastened with bit of red string to a
white ribbon on which was printed in
blue ink, Pure American terne plate.
made from steel sheets rolled BY the
Piqua Rolling Mill, September 9Th, 1891,
coated with California tin and Missouri
lead, by thes Cincinnati Corrugating
Company, of Piqna, September 14th,
1901. Not an atom of foreign metal in
this plate. Mckinley at Piqua, Septem-
Der 18th, 1884,"
MKINLEY DECORATED WITH ONE.
One of the badges was presented to
Major Mckinley and he wore il on his
bosom all day, and said it was the
proudest decoration that had ever been
placed there.
Mr.. Mckinley also read, during his
speech to Piqua folks, the contract which
the corrugating company had made
that very morning to furnish "Amercan
tin" to roof Major Sternberger's barn.
The contract was as follows:
We agree to furnish Mr.. ii. S. Stern
berger within two weeks from this date,
tin manufactured by us entirely of Ameri-
can materials at as low price us the deal
ers of this city sell the imported article
We. also agree that the quality of the same
WILL be equal to said imported tin and will
guarantee same to such an extent us to
wear as il is customary for tin-roofers to
do: THE CINCINNATI CORRUGATED Co.,
J. Il. BATTELLE, Secretary, Sept. IL, 1891.
This contract and the badges were
duly accepted by Piqua Republicans
and by the newspaper men who accom-
panied Major Mckinley as indubitable |
proof of the reality and permanence of |
the new industry, and the waiting |
world, even as far off as Cincinnati and |
Chicago, was informed next morning |
that the long-sought great American tin
plate industry had at last been run to
earth and cornered in Piqua, Ohio.
THE DEMOCRATS SMELL A MOUSE.
The Democrats of Piqua, an active