Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-10-15
80 Per ear.
RavaE1e:n Advance
The Tin-plsta Syndicate Uneasy

The tenacity with which the tariff
fighters continue their appeals for free
foreign trade, or falling that, a greatly
reduced tariff duty, is not only desper-
ate, it is even pathetic. One by one
have slipped away those monopolies
through which foreigners have been
able to extOrt from American purchas-
ers whatever price they choose to de-
mand, until the list is now so small as to
its portend disappearance in the near
future.
Much Of the trade in steel rails, cut
lery, fabrics from silk, cotton and wool,
with long list of chemical products,
once controlled from the busy manufac-
turing centers of Great Britain, is no
longer within the grasp of her trades
men. This is mainly the result of wise
foresight and wholesome legislation on
the part of such nations as have devel-
Oped their natural resources and en-
couraged the industry and ingenuity Of
their peoples.
Among the most prosperous and
highly priced of British manufactures is
the tin-plate industry. For long years
this has been spared anxiety for its
welfare, because supposed to be beyond
the reach of foreign competition that
was so steadily trenching upon the
once unchallenged sweep of other man
ufactures. But at last shadow falls
athWart the ruddy glow from the CHM
ney tops of Swansea and kindred cen
ters, and anxiety takes hold upon the
syndicate that so long has held the
throttle of the tin business of the world.
The Mckinley tariff has warned them
to heed the admOnition that no matter
how firmly one may stand, it is well to
have some heed lest he fall.
The United States consumes two
thirds of all the tin-plates made in the
world. The manufacture of this is con-
fined to a small district in Great Britain,
and is under control Of less than one
hundred men. Is it to be wondered
that these men, rolling in wealth, eX
torted from the steadily augmenting de-
mand from this country, should look
with displeasure upon that feature of
our tariff which proposes to extend
towards tin-plate making by our people
the same opportunity that was given for
rail rolling, the manufacture of cutlery
nails and the long list of equally neces-
sary articles that are now made by
home labor and sold as cheaply here as
anywhere else? Of course they object
to the enforcement of such law, Just
as vehemently as their attorneys in
Congress object to its enactment. And
the vigor Of their opposition is now, as
then, intensified by the growing GER
tainty that, once given opportunity for
foOthold, and reasonable assurance of
being allowed to hold the market with
out handicap of the acknowledged diff
ference between wages here and abroad
American enterprise will repeat in tin
plate manufacture the history of so
many other industries in which the
scepter of monopoly has been wrenched
from control of those who once fondly
dreamed that Britain was to remain the
workshop of the world, and that her
capitalists were to retain the privilege
of naming prices to suit their own no.
tons of monopolistic profits,
Of course, neither the British tin
plate syndicate nor its representatives
in this country are satisfied with the
outlook. No confidence is violated when
it is admitted that the supporters of our
tariff law never expected that they
would be satisfied.