Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-25
Dab. Oliver Says That Tin Plate Max
ing Is Being Hindered by
but One Thing.
sFEAR OF MORE TARIFF TINKERING
Prevents American Manufacturers From
Turning Out Quantities
of Tin.
BENEFITS OF PROTECTION TO LABOR.
How the Farmer Has a Share in II, Also, by Being
His Own Landlord

Mr.. David B. Oliver, General Manager Q
} the Oliver Iron and Steel Company, talke
entertainingly yesterday to DISPATCH re
porter who asked him about the tin plat
industry in America Said he: ''Make til
plate here? Certainly we can. Why not
Tin plate consists of iron or steel sheets o
good quality and the requisite thickness
properly secured and cleaned and thel
coated with tin. That is all there is of it
"At present the bulk of the world suppl,
of tin plate is made in England and Wales
The tin for coating comes mainly from th'
Straits settlements In the Dutch East Indies
formerly it was mined in Wales and Corn
wall, and is yet to a limited extent; bu
the growth in the consumption of tin plate
of late years has been so great that the ole
sources of supply are no longer adequate
and now Banca and Malacca are the largest
producers of the pure tin. 1 have no doubt
that we have plenty of tin in this country,
which will be developed in due time, and
until then we can do as the Welshmen dc,
buy the tin for coating. There are hundreds
of thousands of tons of iron and steel made
every year in Allegheny county alone of the
quality suitable for tin plate.
"Why, then, do not our manufacturers
| begin to make it at once?"
THE MKLNLEY BILL INDICATED.
''The Mckinley bill passed about a month
before the last Congressional elections; by
false pretense and all kinds of gross misrep-
resentations the voters were influenced
inst r.. thor 20 ot
these efforts, and the verdict of the people
seemed to be against it, and since the cor
onation of Queen Victoria Englishmen have
not been so hilarious in their rejoicings as
when the result of that election reached
them. Since then the Mckinley bill has
vindicated itself, and if it can only get over
the new Congress safely it will have come
to stay, but capital is timid and conserva-
tive, and our manufacturers hesitate, owing
to this uncertainty. Once let it be realized
that the act will not be disturbed, and we
will very shortly make all the tin plate we
use, and possibly make it for export.
"The-United States are now the largest
consumers of tin plate in the world, taking,
believe, more of it than all the rest COM
blned, and know of no good reason why we
should not make it for ourselves"
but you cannot make it as cheap as the
imported article"
POSSIBLY not, at first. When we first i'm
ported steel rails we paid $3.50 a ton for them;
now we make them here and sell them for
$50 ton. A few years ago, when we i'm
ported wire nails, they sold at 10 cents a
pound; they are now made here and sell at
cents pound. When we first began their
manufacture here we followed the Old
World methods; we made the wire rod from
a two-inch billet weighing about 2s pounds,
and the product of a mill was about 16 tons
q turn.
SOME AMERICAN IMPROVEMENTS.
WaS $l,o
the rod from four-inch billet weighing 14O
pounds, and we make over l25 tons in the
same time, and with about the same labor
we formerly did the 16 tons. Other i'm
provements in the manufacture have been
made and today you can buy wire nails here
as cheap as you can in England. believe it
will be the same way with tin plate-once
our people get their minds right down to it
and get the hang of it, have no idea we
will long continue to follow the Old World
antiquated methods"
'It is frequently said that the tariff pro-
protect the workman"
"Yes / see that statement sometimes
made, but it is made unadvisedly-at least as
far as the iron industry is concerned What
is known and classed in the iron trade as
bar iron is the base of the merchant iron
trade, because that class includes a grea ter
tonnage than perhaps all the rest of the
kinds and classes combined. Pig iron is the
material from which bar iron is made, and
the labor required to convert the pig into
bar consists of pudding heating, rolling.
and then incidental labor, and is prac cticaily
of the same nature in this country and
England. The English Staffordshire manu-
facturer can to-day buy his pig iron at f2
5s $50 80 of our money! per ton; he can sell
his product of merchant bar iron at E5 los
($27 So per ton; the difference between his
cost for pig and his return for his bar
being SIG 9S per ton. He pays for labor:
PuddlingS 8 shillings per ton; rolling heating
npr lyin
a total for labor of 20 shillings (S4 S4) per ton.
"The Pittsburg iron manufacturer will
pay to-day for his pig iron So % per ton; he
difference between his cost for pig and
his return for bar being $40 Al per ton. He
pays for labor: Pudding, S. so per ton;
rolling, heating and other labor, So 25 per
ton; making a total for labor of $l3 70 per
ton.
AMERICAN LABOR THE BEST PAID.
"The English manufacturer, therefore,
has difference between his pig and bar of
SIG SO per ton, and he pays 81 81 for la
bor The American manufacturer has a diff
ference between mis- pig and bar of $40 Al per
ton, and he pays for his labor $l3 70 per ton
As have said, the amount of labor and skill
requisite, and the conditions under which
they are exercised, are practically the same
in both countries, but the American labor
gets for its share nearly three times more
than the English labor gets-and the English
is by no means the lowest foreign labor in
the iron trade the Belgian and German be-
ing much lower, and the English workmen
are now agitatIng actively for protection
against the importation OF Continental iron
into England.
"These two amounts-$4 81 for English and
$1S IS for American labor for the same service
are very highly ydisproportionate. In all my
talks with opponents of our protective sys-
tenn, have never yet obtained from them
anything approaching a satisfactory expla-
nation of how or in what way an American
manufacturer could make iron and pay the
present wages without the tariff. Free trade |
college professors may theorize, but as a
practical man, say it is utterly impossible !
for him to do so.
"No, the average wages Of iron workers |
are not excessive; take pudding for in i
stance: $5 so per ton-pra ctically S. so per day
for two skilled men and exceedingly labor |
1ous and severe labor continuously before a |
furnace. American workmen are voters |
and it is desirable, for this reason if for no |
other, that they be well paid and enabled to |
have comfortable homes and educate their |
children"
"But do not the farmers have to pay this |
excess?"
Practically speaking, no; the excess is |
SO distributed and recompensed as not to be |
enter so largely into the construction and |
maintenance of railways that you might
expect to find its effects there but there is |
no country in the world where railway |
freight charges are as low as here, or where |
the farmer gets his products carried as |
cheaply to market; neither does it show In |
the purchase of his farming machinery and |
implements. The Western farmer can buy |
allsteel reaplng or moving machines, laid |
down at his barn in the Northwest, for less |
money than the English farmer in York |
shire can his. Competent judges assure me |
that ours are at the same time lighter, |
stronger and better adapted to the work.
AMERICANS THEIR OWN LANDLORDS.