New-York tribune., 1891-05-23
AMERICANS WHO HATE AMERICAN IN


AMERICANS WHO HATE AWERICAN IN
DUSTRY
What means this passionate anxiety to make
it appear that nobody is producing tin plates IN
this country? 1t is yet more than month be-
fore the new duty will 60 into effect more than
month, therefore, before production OF tin
plates in this country for commercial purposes
was expected What would 1t prove what
satisfaction would it be to any honest Amerl-
can, if all preparations or experimental work
ngs thus far had produced no tin plates in com
merciaI quantities? What is the explanation
of these frantic assertions, which crowd the
columns of some papers, that American makers
have not vet begun to do what nobody expected
them to do until next July? The assertions
happen to be false, but If they were true, what
of IT, The people who are the first to make
tin plates might naturally be those who had
use for them in their own business, so that
they could be certain Of their market regard
less of possible changes in price or foreign COM
petition before July 1. If such establishments
have made plates for their own consumption
but not yet in additional quantities for general
sale, is it anybody's businessP
Some Free-Trade papers, which have not
consciences sufficiently indurated for the out
country for the manufacture of tin plates, are
now resorting to the pretence that the plates
cannot be of American manufacture unless the
tin and tho palm oil are of domestic produc-
ton. "The Providence JOurnalo says that
specimens of domestic plate, so-called, are
made by purchasing the required gauge OF sheet
iron or steel, and dipping it into imported palm
oil and solution Of imported tin" What else
does the British maker do? He imports his
tin from the Straits, exactly as American max
ers do and his palm oil from Africa, and 20
him, as to Americans, both materials are i'm
ported. But when the American uses the same
material in the same way, to "The Providence
Journap' the product appears domestic plate,
so-called,n which looks as though "The Provi-
denoe journal" might be an American news
paper, so-called.
1t is only little while since the Free-Trade
Journals were all declaring that the manufacture
Of tin plates was so difficult, delicate and costly
that Americans could never compete in it. Now
| many of them assert, as "The Providence Jour
nal" does, that "any man who has $3.50, to
purchase tin pot and spare corner in q
store-room or shed where a man and boy can
work, can easily produce tin plates in this fash
ion for fun or politics." Well, if the work is
so cheap and easy, what was the use Of the
Free Trade lie that Americans could never hope
| to succeed in 1t? Nobody ever imagined that
the difficulty was in rolling iron or steel plates
of the requisite thinness and quality. Work
vastly more difficult than that has been done
| constantly by American iron-workers for years
| But the assertion was that the coating of iron
or steel plates with tin was thing beyond the
power of Americans So that falsehood also
has been exploded.
The truth about the matter is stated in
recent circular by the American Tin Plate
Manufacturers Association as follows: at
can be truthfully stated that the manufacture
of tin and terne plates has been inaugurated
| in the United States, and the new industry
established so firmly that nothing can now pre-
| vent its advancement nor crush the enterprise
and determination already shown. Twelve
different works, with combined annual ca
pacity OF sixty thousand net tons, are in course
of construction, some of which are already in
operation. This amount is equal to about one
sixth of the tin plates imported in the year
1890" The enormous imports this year have
been for the purpose of anticipating the new
duty, though enemies of home industry ex-
| aggefate them, IL trade circular Is correct
which states the actual shipments to this coun-
try, January to May 1, as follows:
Shipments to U. s., boxes. Jan. 1-May l. May.
1871 200 1000
1sHO ,oOODOO 5O5,ODO
1889 100000 $4,000
| Estimated.
The unusual demand mas lifted the price
abroad and here. For eight years the price
shown by 1.-The Iron Age" supplement of May
ID was substantially all the time below So 30
per box and averaged about 81 70 but fell
in 1889 to the lowest figure ever known for a
considerable period, about 81 90 per box. 1t
recovered TO - 50 near the end of the year
dropped to Si 80 in May, 1890, but rose TO
"a 10 in August The extraordinary demand
in advance of the new tariff added about so
cents per box in October, but from So 80 at
that time the price has declined. and is now
weak at about 50 90. When the foreign max
ers have loaded American houses with all they
will buy we shall probably see the foreign price
put down much lower than il was in 1889
Il