The Louisiana Democrat., 1891-03-11
TIN PLATE PIRATE.
The Real Effects of tho Mckinley Bill on
That Industry.

The Real Effects of tho Mckinley BIZ on
That Industry.
The New York Tribune tries to draw
comfort from the recent advance in the
price of tin plate, which it seems to
look on as one Of the benefcent results
of The Mckinley tariff. 1t says al o:
The fact tnnt many establishments have
undertaken business in earnest, have provided
machinery and trained labor and have already
invested large sums in the undertaking. would
suffice with most persons OF sense to prove
that the manufacture was expected to yield
profit.
There is an unpleasant haziness about
these statements. Who have started
these many works? Where have they
started them and when? How much
capital have they invested in them?
And-this is something which no al
legged manufacturer of American tin
plate has seen fit to state--how much
has the tin plate made this side of the
water cost the makers? Isit profitable
for them to make it at the present duty
of a cent pound and present prices, or
are they losing money now, expecting
to make up their losses when July
comes and the duty is advanced to 30
cents pound? Nothing would be
more interesting than such statistics
showing what the steel plate costs,
what the tin costs and what American
labor gets.
The new duty does not go into force
till July, but the price of tin plate has
gone up already. Let it be admitted
that it has done so because of the Nc
Kinley bill. Who is benefited thereby?
The American consumer? Certainly
not, for it has raised the price of many
articles he uses and thus has hurt him.
Has it helped American labor? No.
Where are the statistics to show that it
has been aided? How many men are
working in American tin plate mills
and what wages are they getting? Why
is no information vouchsafed on these
points? Are the mill bosses benefited?
No; there is nothing to show that they
have gone into the business. The
Mckinley bill furnishes them with bet
ter ways of making more money.
There was dispatch the other day
to the effect that certain Pitts
burgh people are going to start a
sheet steel and tin plate mill at Joliet.
Perhaps they will. But, while there
have been many such dispatches since
last September, the mills do not seem
to materialize, and there do not seem
to be any manufacturers taking adj
vantage of the present high price of
tin plate. The House passed the Nc
Kinley bill last May, or nine months
ago. Every one knew that the Senate
would pass it. Therefore no man
risked any thing by going ahead at
once and beginnin; the manufacture OF
tin plate. But why were they so slow
about it? Why did not those Pitts
lurgh men, who, according to Con-
gresham Bayne. were just aching for
a chance to capture the American tin
plate market, jump in last June and do
so? This singular delay. this unpatriot-
ic hanging back. ha not been explained
by the New York Tribune Or any other
papers which favor the extra high duty
ON tin plate.
While speaking of this subject it may
not be amiss to ask what has become of
the Black Hills tin output, about which
so much was said last summer. Senator
Moody made S me glowing prophecies
to the effect that if the tin
plate duty We're raised immense
manufactures would spring up at
once in the Back Hills, where all
the tin plate of the country would b.
made. His constituents do not seem to
take much stock in his talk, for they
are evidently in no hurry to re-elect
him. They do not fancy having to pay
more for their tinware to boom ina gin
ary factories and tin mines which do
not materialize.
The whole business was humbug.
Consumers are taxed and nobody is
benefited. The only practical result
thus far is the ousting from seats which
they might have kept otherwise of a
large number of Republican Congress-
men.-Chicago Tribune (Rep)