Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1891-01-24
a PLATE-GLASS TRUST.

The American Manufacturers OF Pate
Glass Meet and Raise Prices-A Highly
Protected Industry Gets More Tariff Pap
-Grcat Profits of the Industry-The En-
glish Take IA 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 !op'
bers of the plate glass trade will be held in
this city in the near future. At the recent
New York meeting 1t was decided to advance
prlces 30 per cent, but since then Western
men have made stand for Il Is per cent ad-
vance. The avowed intention of the frater-
nal combination is to keep plate glass prices
at the highest figure possible, ana at the
same time keep it low enough to shut out all
Importation.
When trusts are formed the manu-
facturers who go into them usually put
forward some such excuse as ''ruinous
competition" and sometimes they call
1t "cut-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 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 IL
this country which make plate-glass
and there is usually an understanding
among these as to their price lists. Thi
combination, how ever, was not SO stront
as to prevent some of the manufactur
ers and dealers from cutting prices
hence at the New York meeting re
ferred to steps were taken to make tn
combination more solid.
The New York Oil, Paint and Dru
Reporter, which is also an organ OF tn
glass trade, printed an editorial on tn
subject of the New York meeting, i
which it said:
son Saturday last the dealers of this cit
J and Boston met ut the Metropolitan Hot
and held Il prolonged session with close
doors. At the end of the meeting II was III
nounced that the combination had peen mi
I terially strengthened by the exaction
renewed pledges to maintain the agree
4 prices" :, y,
. This paper furthermore described II
4 plate-plass market as sin better shal
. than ever before" there being an actl'
demand and 'stocks in all hands low
!. These low stocks can not, however,
!. replenished by importation, as the Nj
y Kinlcy duties are almost prohibitor
i and the Reporter points out furth
. that mo relief can be looked for fro
. the other side, as prices there have be-
advanced of late, and the import cost
altogether too high to encourage impo
. atoms" :,
u The protectionists are fond of poil
II ing to the plate-glass industry, as
n of the best illustrations of the wisdt
of our high tariff policy. They po
80 out how the industry had to strugs
IL for foothold here in its infancy, HI
" protection came to its aid, how the p
c. duction has increased to 25,oO0,0Oo Il
annually, and how the price has &c
,e down under protection from % to
in cents.
ne At first sight this looks like strc
nc case for the protectionists; but SO
C. further facts need to be told to sh
IS its ''true inwardness.n The small gu
le, tity of plate-glass that came mto
al country for the fiscal year ended j.
o. 30, 1890, was admitted, according to
be treasury reports, at s2.Sc cents
ur square foot Now II we calculate
ur total cost Of our %, 000, 900 feet Of HI
manufactured glass, (the amc
H. claimed by the protectionists as
in annual output, at this price we
" that u would hsvs been ss,sio'oo0