Sharp County record., 1891-02-05

annually, and how the price has gone
down under protection from 65 to 90
cents.
At first sight this looks like a strong
case for the protectionists; but some
further facts need to be told to show
its ''true inwardness. The small guam
tity Of plate-glass that came into the
country for the fiscal year ended June
80, 1890, was admitted, according to the
treasury reports, at 92.S6 cents per
square foot Now if we calculate the
total cost of our 25. 900, 900 feet of home
manufactured glass, (the amount
claimed by the protectionists as our
annual output. AT this price we find
that it would have been SS,215, 900.
But the price of the glass manufact-
ured in this country ranged, according
to protectionist authority, from 65 to 90
cents foot. The average of these two
figures would be 771s; but putting the
average still lower, say rs cents, the
wholesale price of this glass was S1S,-
100000 In other words, we paid S1O,.
$500 more for it in the home market
than if we had bought it from the
foreign manufacturers at the average
prices prevailing in 1890.
The full significance of these figures
can be seen by taking the case
OF the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Com
pany. In their advertisement in
the latest number of The Man.
ufacturer and Builder they claim
to have capacity of 5000 square
feet monthly" This would be 3,12O, 900
feet in year, which, at rs cents a foot,
would bring 50, $40, 900. If the same
quantity were bought at 1928 cents per
square foot, the foreign price as above
given, the total cost would have been
Sl,O25,2 ,232, or net tariff difference of
$1,914,7 76S for the American consumer to
pay.
Early last year there was a case in
Pittsburgh in which one of the men in
terested in this company testified that
it cleared 34% per cent. on it's capital in
1889. About the same time repre-
sentative of this company went to
England to negotiate with an English
syndicate, with view to uniting the
nine plate-glass factories of this coun-
try. The English had already gotten
wind of the great tariff spoils our glass
men were making, for it was announced
at the same time that an English COM
pany had begun the erection of factory
at Irwin, town near Pittsburgh, Pa.
The high protection given the plate,
glass men under the old law had be.
come almost prohibitory even before
Mckinley began TO turn his tariff mill.
The last English firm doing business in
New York closed up its establishment.
in that city several years ago, and oul
importations of plain polished plate
glass are now less than one million dol
lars worth year. Yet Mckinley
strengthened the practical monopoly
enjoyed by our manufacturers by rails
ing the duty on the smallest size of glass
from three cents per foot to five cents
an advance which was not asked for by
the manufacturers themselves, so far as
the official published reports show. The
duty on the largest sizes of plate glass is
so cents foot, which is equal, accord
ing to the official figures used by the
Senate, to 141.43 per cent. ad valorem.
Additional protection is now given the
manufacturers by the new customs law,
which allows nothing for broken glass
The McKinleyites did all they could
to smooth the way for trusts, and trusts
are now springing into life with rapid.
ity which ought to be very gratifying to
Mckinley, who believes that "cheap
merchandise means cheap men,"