The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1891-04-01
M.KINLEy INDUSTRIES

What TIE New Tari6 Has Already Done
Labor and Wages Both Benefited-Tin
Iiate and Cutlery-Steady Growth In
both Industries.
1t is too early yet to look for the full
effects of the new tariff bill. Immedi-
ately after its passage came news from
all parts of the country of silent mills
made active, of old establishments to be
enlarged and new ones to be estab-
fshed As the New York Sun put it,
swarm of English. Scotch, Irish and
French agents were scourin 2 the coun-
Try after sites for linen, hosiery, tin and
wooden mills The situation fully justi
fed our prediction that the,country WIS
entering upon a career of prosperous in
dustrial activity such as it had never ex-
perieneed.
But these bright prospects were dark
ened by the victory at the polls of the
party hostile to the new measure. That
victory was celebrated with greatest
glee beyond the ocean. The London
Economist, having quoted the protec-
ton argument that IAN enormous num-
Der of new industries will be started to
supply the home market; and thence
high wages and y great demand for
native labor" said four days after the
American election:
LIT the manufacturers could have been
| assured Of the continuance Of protection
they would, no doubt, have acted in &C
cordance with this forecast"
But it added:
1.-The recent pronesnrtnens Of popular
opinion in faror Of the democrats is likely.
then. to haVe the eject Of preventing any
great increment in the direction Of the estab
Lishment Of new home manufactures.
Nevertheless, substantial benefits are
beginning to flow from the new tariff,
particularly. in the lines of industry,
like tin plates and cutlery, most direct
~ affected.
| Take, for example, one of the new
tin-plate mills. No one will deny that
they are all legitimate children of the
Mckinley bill. Note the benefits that
come to labor before sheet of tin plate
is made. First, laborers are set to work
at excavating. Thousands Of dollars are
expended for masonry. Orders for
brick. stone, lime and sand create addi-
tional demand for laborers. Mechanics
are set at work to make needed ma
shineEy. One firm gets ap order for .
steel furnace. another contract for an
iron roof and others supply different
parts OF the equipment, together aggre-
eating from one to five hundred thou
sand dollars, not a cent of which would
be spent in the community but for the
| Mckinley bill. 1t is safe to say that
ninety per cent. of that money goes to
labor in some form or another
After the mill is up. the benefits to
unskilled labor in supplying coal and
ore for the iron used in its furnaces, and
to skilled furnacemen in making and
rolling the steel and preparing the other
| work incident to the manufacture of tin
plates, are too obvious to need mention.
The money so employed will be a direct
saving to our own people year after
year so long as the mill remains in
| operation. Can any one doubt that
labor in this case is benefited by the
new bill?
The benefits to labor in the cutlery
industry are hardly less marked. The
Iron Age of February 10 reports that
the manufacturers of pocket cutlery
throughout the United States are busy
on orders and that wages, as a rule,
have been advanced. It quotes one
manufacturer as follows:
I'VE have readjusted and advanced
wages in the pocket cutlery department
of our mandatory, resulting in an
increase of 10 to Is per cent. A similar
course is being taken throughout the
pocket knife manufactures of the cOun-
try. The course is a just One-pOcket
knife workers having had a very hard
time for six years past, and many work
men have changed to more renumera-
tive employments. Manufacturers have
been m aking losing fight against the
vast impo rtatiOns of German goods
stamped and sold under American cover.
But for recent tariff Legislation this in
dustrv would in a few years have been
completely destroyed in this country
The scattered workmen will now return
and soon every plant in the country
will be alive again.
1.-The business will probably have
safe and steady growth. Just now every
American pocket cutlery manufacturer
is busy on orders taken at prices made
before the Mckinley bill passed De-
lighted to be once again busy, they are
paying advanced prices to workmen,
and when taking new orders will
neither seek or secure advanced prices
beyond the mark made necessary by
advanced wages and cost of good goods"
1t is facts like these to which we point
in vindication of our new protective
measure. Before the next election rolls
around that vindication will be com
plete. The deniagogues who pretended
to measure the results Of the new tariff
before it had beeh month in opera
ton will, we feel sure, receive at the
hands of the voters they deceived a cas-
tigation commensurate in severity with
the enormity of their reckless misrepre-
sensations The Mckinley bill will
work out its own salvation.
How Many Tin-Plate Mills Have Been
Built: