The Forrest City times., 1891-07-17
FIGHTING FOR PROFITS.
'HHB oTEEL RAIL MAKERS AND
 THEIR METHODS.

,Railroads Arc BuiidIng-U Using the Tariff Duty Co Squeeze the Railroads-A Case for Domestic Tin Plate Gunners.
 One of the best known among all the laws of trade is that large demand for any commodity will cause prices to rise; and it is equally well known that light demand will cause prices to decline. A familiar case in point just now is that of tin plates As soon as the Mckinley bill became 8 law last fall, with it's in- creased duty on tin plates after July 1, 1891, our dealers began at once to lay in enormous stocks. The large orders re- ceived by the Welsh manufacturers showed them that consumers were de- Aermined to have tin plates, even at higher prices; and hence prices began to rise.
 ts- But prices doFnot move themselves; they are the result of the conflicting in- terests of buyer and seller. The buyer beats prices down to the lowest possible point; the seller demands all that he Thinks the buyer will give. There is no tQuestion on either side of benevolence or Delf-interost-a struggle for the pound of flesh.
 But the rise in price of tin plates in Wales has had 8 peculiar effect upon the protectionist mind in America. Our high tariff tin plate organs and our pros pective tin plate manufacturers hasten to point out to us that we are exposed to the tender mercies of foreign mo- nopoly. Prices, they tell us are fixed by this graspng foreign monopoly, and are always screwed up to the highest possible point.
 Such is is the picture that our pro- tected manufacturers and their news papers see in cases where foreign trade is concerned. Why do they fail to see that in the home market precisely the same state of things prevails? Why do they strain at foreign gnat and swal- low home market camel? They even pretend that there is tin plate trust in sWaes, though such thing has never existed there. But why do they raise their hands in holy horror at phantom tin plato trust in Wales, while our own blessed home market is overrun and trampled upCn by trusts as no other land on earth?
 In pointing out how the foreign tin plate makers have raised prices under the influence of brisk demand from this side, they overlook the fact that American manufacturers, that all man. iuldCbuTeTS, dTe SONtIHeo Uy lue Sdm6 rule in their business. If these people really have such a righteous indignation against the foreigner, they might find an even more worthy object of their wrath in our steel-rail industry
 For many years our rail men have been in combinations to control both prices and output. Whenever there has been much railroad building, they have showed prices up and made enormous profits, lowering prices again when times were dull, and contenting themselves with smaller profits. At present they are selling at prices fixed last January ($31 at Chicago, S30 at Pittsburg), and firmly adhered to ever since.
 The steel rail combination has always pursued the policy of raising prices when railroad building was most active In fact, they have often made use of their combination for the purpose of squeezing the largest possible profits out of the railroads, bleeding them to the full extent which the high duty would permit. Thus about ten years ago there was tremendous boom in railroad building. The demand was so great that our domestic mills turned out in the three years, 1SSo-'52, an average of 1,1o6, 900 tons per year, and an average of 17s00o tons per year were imported in addition. The duty on rails was then $2s per ton, and the average price of do- mestc rails was for these three years 32s.67 above the like average in Eng land, the price here averaging S59.
 During the preceding three years the domestic manufacturers had to content themselves with . much lower price, the average being $44. 50 per ton, or only oh0uo tho Ey,o olio oh Again, the two years 1SS4-'s5, were years of depression, and the demand for rails fell 'etf to 0S0, 900 tons year. Dur ing these two years our rail makers had to take $29. 60 on an average for their rails, or only S6.47 above the English price
 In the two years, lsS6'S7, there was another boom in railroad building, the yearly consumption rising to 1,836, ,0Oo tons of domestic and Sa, 500 tons of foreign rails. The tariff had meanwhile been lowered to SIT a ton, and the enormous profits already noticed were no longer possible. Still the rail- makers succeeded in squeezing out nearly the last drop ofiprofit there was in the new duty the average price for the two years being $35. s0a ton, or $16.60 above the price in England.
 In view of these facts it is clear that cour rail makers use the tariff to get as much profit as the market will bear. The price of rails has been manipulated dn very arbitrary manner, and has varied much more than tin plate prices have. Notwithstanding this fact oul htgh-tarif organs deny even that there is steel-raR com mbination in America and go gunning rather for a mythica tim plate trust in Wales, although the prices in plates showed an almost un broken downward movement until the Mckinley law was, enacted.
 The apologtsts for the rail makers may claim that the great rises and falls In rail prices gre due to varying cost of production. But this will not do A varying cost Gf production there un- dOubtedly is; but the price of rails docs not rise or fall with the costsof making. Indeed, the contrary is often the case. Thus, in February and March 1887, the cost of making rails s ct e.of our largest mills, as showr from Its books, wAs @2H.93 a ton, and the sellingRrice was &39. 50, a net profit oi 70. 57 per ton. In December of the same vera, however, the cost of production had riser to $3O sa, while the selling price hadfallen to &S2, a profit ,cf only :9l.17 per ton. ThA conditions of tho market hah changed, and rails could moi Ibe sold atrthe former large profits The sman ufactnrers were forced to .adjus, sthemselves ito an uCfavorable market and temptft with lower prices, when MAturally some protectk0nist organ would 1ise and remark, What wonders protec. hicn hath wrought!