Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-01-22
A PUATE-GLASS TRUST.

The American Manufacturers OF Plate
Glass Meet and Raise Prices-A Highly
Protected Industry Gets More Tariff Pap
Great Profits of the Industry-The En-
glish Take q Hand
On the day after Christmas the New
York Tribune, the champion high tariff
organ of the country. printed the fol-
lowing dispatch from Pittsburgh, Pa:
a meeting of the manufacturers and job
bers of the plate glass trade will be held in
this city in the near future At the recent
New York meeting it was decided to advance
prices 30 per cent, but since then Western
men have made stand for a . per cent ad
vance The avowed intention of the frater-
nal combination is to keep plate glass prices
at the highest figure possible, and at the
same time keep it low enough to shut cut all
importation
When trusts are formed the manu-
facturers who 60 into them usually put
forward some such excuse as '.ruinous
competition and sometimes they call
it ''cHt-throat competition Before the
Ways and Means Committee at Wash
ington they plead for protection upon
the ground that it will bring about COM
petition: but when competition has be-
gun to do its work they suddenly dis
cover that competition is the very thing
that they do not want; hence they must
get rid of competition" and so a trust
is formed.
But the plate-glass manufacturers are
the last men that should complain of
excessive competition and low profits.
There are only nine or ten factories in
this country which make plate-glass;
and there is usually an understanding
among these as to their price lists This
com bination, how ever, was not so strong
as to prevent some of the manufacture
ers and dealers from cutting prices.
hence at the New York meeting re-
ferred to steps were taken to make ihe
combination more solid
The New York Oil, Paint and Drug
Reporter, which is also an organ of the
glass trade, printed an editorial on the
subject of the New York meeting, in
which it said:
ION Saturday las. the dealers of this city
and Boston met at the Metropolitan Hotel
and held a prolonged session with closed
doors. At the end of the meeting il was an
nounced that the combination had peen ma
terially strengthened by the exaction Of
prices"
This paper furthermore described the
plate-glass market as ''in better shape
than ever before" there being an active
demand and ''stocks in all hands low"
These low stocks can not, however, be
replenished by importation, as the Nc
Kinley duties are almost prohibitory,
and the Reporter points out further
that mo relief can be looked for from
the other side, as prices there have been
advanced of late, and the import cost is
altogether too high to encourage import
atoms"
the protectionists are fond of point
ing to the plate-glass industry, as one
of the best illustrations of the wisdom
of our high tariff policy They point
out how the industry had to struggle
for a foothold here In its infancy, how
protection came to its aid. how the pro-
duction has increased to 25, 600, 600 feet
annually, and how the price has gone
down under protection from 65 to 90
cents.
At first sight this looks like a strong
case for the protectionists; but some
further facts need to be told TO show
its ''true inwardness." The small guam
tity of plate-glass that came into the
country for the fiscal year ended June
so, 1890, was admitted, according to the
treasury reports, at SO cents per
square foot Now If we calculate the
total cost of our q. 900, 900 feet of home
manufactured glass, (the amount
claimed by the protectionists as our
ANIMAL output), at this price we find
that If w09id have been -