Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-11-07
RECORD OF ONE WEEK
NOT A PLEASANT CONTEMPLATION
FOR THE M'KlNLEY lDOLATERS.

FOR The M'klNlEY lDOlATERS.
Trusts Formed, Mills Closed, Prices Raised
and Wages Reduced In Artiflcially Slim
uIated Industries-A Very Startling
Condition.
1t is the claim of protectionists-as
ridiculous as it is general-that protec-
tion tariffs tend to destroy monopolies
and trusts, to increase production, to
lower prices and to raise wages. Tariff
reformers take different view on all
these points and base their opinions less
upon theory and more upon facts They
have recently called the attention of the
country to list of 100 tariff trusts, to
list of 500 wage reductions in protected
industries since October, 1890, to hun
dreds of articles on which both the duty
and the price have been increased, to
hundreds of mills and factories closed
by these tariff trusts to restrict produc-
ton, and to numerous other similar facts.
Readers of trade papers come across
multitude of facts on the tariff reform
side of this question. Here lie a few
taken from The Weekly Iron Age of
Aug. 4, 1S92-it should be remembered
that the greatest of all protected indus
tries is that of iron and steel manufac-
ture:
1t publishes a list of eight big iron and steel
combines and OF several smaller ones of recent
date. These embrace the manufacture of steel
rails, structural steel, crucible and open hearth
steel, steel billets, wire rods, wire, wire nails,
boiler and tank plates, armor plates, cut nails,
slabs, pig iron, bar iron, etc.
1t discusses "the tactics of the coal COM
bine," which has advanced prices of anthracite
coal several times during the last few months,
and which will continue to make advances
from time to time in sort of arithmetical
progression with the apparent If not openly
avowed design of reaching a certain maximum
say S5 ton for stove-'before the snow
fies.'"
OF course the duty of IS cents ton on btu
minous coal, which competes with anthracite,
makes ID easier for the coal companies to reach
"a certain definite maximum"
Itsays, "The latest combine in the mercantile
world is fur pool with S10OOO,OOO capital, in
which nearly all the firms in the trade have
become interested" This is the George w.
Treadwell trust, which has monopoly of the
seal fur industry of Alaska, and also of the
dyeing of furs, and which can adjust prices in
this country up to the limits of duty.
1t announces firmer and upward prices for
wire anu cut ualls anu q TeuuCulOD OF b to lU
cent. In the scale OF wages for wire drawing for
1892 and 1898; also that a large number of wire
and cut nail mills are shut down.
1t says, THE Continental Tube works at
Frankstown, near Pttsburg, has closed down
for an indefinite period" because "the firm did
not feel justified in buying skelp iron in the
open market at the recent advance in prices"
ION account of the depression in the iron
market, the Isabella Furnace company. oper-
ating the Isabella furnace at Etna, Pa, has
banked down one stack and will probably bank
another during the present week"
"Addyston Pipe works, the largest in the
country, has posted a notice of shutdown
for an indefinite period"
THE Dunbar Furnace company, at Dunbar,
Pa, operating the two Dunbar furnaces closed
them down on Saturday, July 80 for an in
definite PERIOD" closing down due to the
present depression existing in the pig iron
trade"
The Keystone Horseshoe company of Phila-
delphia, has started upon three-fourths ca
pacity after shutdown of three weeks, dur
ing which time the workmen concluded to
make the required concessions" necessary to
resume work.
Recent advances amounting to 50 and 81 per
ton have been made In structural steel.
There is better tone to prices" of barbed
wire and some of the manufacturers have
withdrawn their quotations"
ut is estimated that about 1900 men are
now lule, causing some eighty buildings in
course of construction to be tied up" in New
York city.
ut is intimated that during the present
month perceptible increase in prices will be
noticed" for window glass.
The Iron Age attempts editorially to
explain the grave necessity which exists
for "the leveling of wages" in the iron
industry. 1t says both prices and wages
have been on an artificial basis, and that
with the disappearance of artificial
values an artificial standard of wages
also falls"
These items-such as occur every
week give a fair idea of industries
propped up by a tariff-unsteady and
fiuctuating prices and production, COM
binations of capital to restrict produc-
ton, raise prices and reduce wages, la
Dor unions to resist the reductions,
strikes, boycotts and labor riots-all
paid for in the end by the consumer
who votes to sustain this unnatural and
unhealthy system of providing for our
wants.