The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1891-08-05
DIsLoYAL AMERICANS.

DISLOYAL AMERICANS.
Free Traders and ..Reformers" Lot .
Traitors-Always BslittlinE Everything
Amsrican-TryinE to Break Down OaI
MISUNDERSTANDING Examples.
There are some unpatriotic yelpers in
this country to-day. A few years age
they said we couldn't make steel rails.
When they saw that we did make them,
they said they were too soft, or too
brittle, and that they would always be
too costly. But they have seen most of
the railroads prefer them; have seen
production increase more than 4, 500 per
cent. in the last twenty years: have
seen the price come down from S1O7 a
ton in 1870, to S34 in 1890; have seen i'm
ports fall from $4,000 tons in 1870, TO
less than 200 tons in 1890. and have seen
exports increase from 1.S4l tons in 1870,
to Is, 1863 tons in the first ten months of
| this fiscal year. and at last they have
stopped talking against American steel
rails. They have been pilloried by
facts at the sign-post of American prog
ress.
But what they said against our ability
to economically produce steel rails was
mild and decent compared with their
efforts to discourage the production Of
American tinplate. In the first place
they said We had no tin. This argu-
ment went down before a whole line Of
facts: first, that only per cent. of tin
plate is tin; second, that tin is free of
duty; third, that the Welsh factories
import most of their tin; and. fourth.
that we have recently produced seven
tons of pig tin at Temescal. Cal, and
are developing its production with mil
lions of capital in South Dakota
Then they said that the making of
tinplate involved high skill, which could
be attained only by long experience.
and that it would cost too much to
attempt to rival the hereditary craft of
the Welsh makers. Think of the humili-
alton of this untrue and unpatriotic
assumption! 1t has been shown that
the process is very simple; that every
other nation with energy and skill is
making its own tinplates; that Norton
Brothers, of Chicago, who have i'm
ported from Wales complete outfit of
machinery, regard it ''of value chiefly
as a model to be avoided" that already
improved processes are in successful
operation here, and that years ago the
best tin roofing ever used in this country
was produced by n. & q. Taylor, of
Philadelphia.
Next the decriers said that nobody
ever thought of investing a dollar in
a tinplate factory anywhere in this
country" and when few plates were
shown at banquets they said it was all
show, pretense, and myth. In
answer to this a list of fourteen COM
panies which are building works, and
some of which were producing plates in
considerable quantities months before
the new tariff became operative, has
been published. AS an offset to this, a
New York tory journal offered a re-
ward for a moderate quantity of a
specified description of tin from any
American mill. The trick in this was
exposed by a New York dealer, who
offered a similar reward for the same
kind from a British mill-t0r it Is not
produced
Finally, when the Welsh monopoly
advanced the price to sixteen shillings
two pence per box. our croalxers said it
was all on account of Mckinley. Amer
leans with souls instead of gizzards re-
piled that this showed how certain we
are to be bled when dependent upon
foreign supply. and that the Mckinley
tariff would soon make us free. Indeed,
it has begun already, for a Boston
dealer has an offer from Wales for tin
plate at thirteen shillings two pence per
box for July delivery; so it is three
shillings lower under high tariff than
it was under low tariff, and American
production will force it lower still.
And now, as forty-three works in
Wales have been closed for month, to
enable the trust to sustain or ad-
vance the price, thus locking out $4,000
innocent toilers-and the leading trade
journals of England are soundly bera-
ting them for it-where is the American
tory organ that has uttered the first
word of condemnation?
When the Boring Sea negotiations
were pending, these same un-American
journals continually assaulted our diplo-
macy, until finally, eX-Minister Phelps,
democrat though he is, plainly told
them through Harper's Monthly, that
they were rendering aid and comfort to
the other side.
That is what they are continually do
ing in regard to our industries, and. like
the early Vermont tory, they should be
Sung up to the sign of public opinion,
where even a dead catamount is above
them in American spirit
Drawbacks.
The opponents of protection have so