The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-12-26
THE MASK Thrown OFF.

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%ufacturers association of the United
States has held a meeting at
which a bill was drawn to be pre-
scented in congress asking that the
duty on tinplato be increased n cent
Il pound. This is one of the checklist
moves that has been made by ultra pro-
te~ctionists in a long time. But it means
that the association throws up the
sponge, virtually acknowledging that it
can not make ~tinplate in this country.
1t throws off the mask under which it
has been paradlng before the public for
campaign purposes and now comes out
in it's real form and figure.
Let us look at this tinplate business
a few moments. Under the old tariff
tinpiate was fairfield at n cent a pound.
No duty was imposed on pig tin-that is
raw material. Major Mckinley increas-
ed the duty on tinplate from one cent a
pound to ID cents per pound. In the
course of his speech in support of the in
creased duty he stated that if the increase
i'm the tariff were made there were sew
eral powerful syndicates of capitalists
that stood ready to go into the manufac-
turc of tinplate and that there were two
or three establishments in the country
which, by slight additions to the plants,
could be transformed into prosperous
tinplatc factories. He said the indus
try was an infant one-it was not born
and must have protection to enable it to
stand on it's feet and grow up with the
country. The increase in the duty was
allowed by his party in congress and the
article stood fairfield at % cents per
pound.
Now let us look at the industry"
Preceding and during the state elections
last fall republican journals abounded
with accounts of the establishment of
tinplate plants all over the country.
Shrcwd reporters for eastern democratic
newspapers were sent out in search OF
the tinplate plants. They couldn't find
them and so reported. These reports
were met by McKinleyites with a fresh
batch of lies and as a clincher McKin-
ley. himself, rolled up his sleeves before
a soap boilers cauldron at Piqua, Ohio,
and dipped some sheet iron in molten
lead. borrowed for the occasion, and
holding the stuff up before a gaping
crowd of suckers, called it ~"tinplate."
Several honest men really believed tin
plate was being made in the country and
felt indignant that democratic news
papers should doubt it. Not a few
gullible republican editors also believed
the transparent yarn and daily ground
out long-winded articles on what was
being lone by tinplate plants in the
country, and wound up their diatribes
by extolling the Mckinley tariff and
dainning democratic editors for not
taking stock in the ~tinplate stories.
The mask is now torn off and an cx-
pose made of the whole matter. No tin
plate is being made IN the country, and
with present appliances. none can be
made in it. The association knows this
and has known it all along. 1t now
proposes to back out of the whole bust
ness. 1t wouldn't do to let it die OF the
hands of the so-called tinplate a~ssocia-
ton without a kick, and so the kick is
made in the form of a request to con-
gress that the duty IN tinplate be in
creased l cent a pound. The reason
given for the request, as the dispatches
put it. is: "As the tariff now stands
duty 30 cents per pound the duty is in
sufficient to afford adequate protection
adequate is good-as it leaves an
opening for old-established tinplate fac
tories in the old world to deluge the
American market at a time when such
action would be decidedly detrimental
to the industry" What a confession!
In the face of this declaration what
becomes of McKinley's promises of the
establishment of tinplate plants all over
the country, with a duty of ID cents a
pound on tinplate? What becomes of
the repeated assurances Of republican
newspapers and republican speakers that
tinplate is being successfully made in
several establishments in America?
What becomes of the stories about the
locking out of $1,000 Welsh tinplate
makers by their Welsh employers on ac-
count of the Mckinley tariff on tinplate?
w. AL ...-.
that Welsh tinplate manufacturers were
going to remove their plants to this coun-
try and go into business? What be-
comes Of all these campaign yarns?
Proven to be lies, every one of them.
Will this congress increase the duty
one cent, making the duty on tinplate
80 cents per pound? Will a democratic
house of representatives impose another
unjust burden upon the laboring men
and their families of this country by in
--..- Al:- limo Nj ~.,.It N-x.-