Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-01-23
The New Industry Would not be
Possible in America but for the
New Tar f.

T G. Niedriughaus, the St Louis ex-
c,ngressman, who has established TIM
nIofe factory In that city. was In Chicago
recanllv He said to reporter:
"The American people will never abol-
isb the tariff on tin plate because the
whole oues ion has resolved itself down to
wLether the American people will get
tbair tin plate from England and support
"A 600 tin plate workers there or whether
Nov VIII ouy their tin mere and support
"a SOC workmen here To employ these
50 400 men to supply the entire consdmp
ton in this country will require the ser
vices of 500 English and Welsh expert tin
plate workers to teach the business to
workmen here, There you are. Either
employ 500 foreigners to establish the in
dustry in this country and give employ
ment to 50, 900 men, or buy all our tin plate
from England and allow these so 600
Americans to remain In ldleness. In
starting a new industry you want few
men fresh from the old established
works in Europe, and they in a short time
will teach the methods to the American
workmen. have imported a few skilled
English and Welsh woTkmen, as they are
absolutely necessary to start the tln.plate
plant we are now operating. j didn't
consult the treasury department and would
not consult it, because the law is plain and
owes as full permission to bring men over
TO start new industry.
The ffee.trade press talks about our
being ariff barons. | would like to IN
oulre if the workmen, AMI not we, are the
barons, the beDefciaries of the tariff.
We pay 81 and $3.50 per day to our TIN
pate workers which is two and two and
a half time the wages paid the English
tin plates workers The tin plate industry
il protected rs per cent. and the working
man gets 100 to $50 per cent. increase in
wages over the English workman. So it
is the workingman who is the tariff baron,
and not the employer
The American people will not pay
any more for tin-plato than they have IN
the past, and hence you will see that IN
the next twelve years the tin plate made
here will not lie higher In price than
it has been in the past twelve
years. We can not make tin as
cheap as the English factories, but we
can sell it as cheap as it has been sold by
the foreigners. If we were given work
men from England and had only to pay
them English wages we could drive the
English tin-plate producers out of the
business; but as it Is, with the Increased
wages we will pay, we will only supply the
American market,A
II always consent to be interviewed,
because | believe it will help in attract
ing Englishmen over here to start up the
works they will be compelled to abandon
over there because of the high tariff.
There was an Englishman spying around
our factory several weeks ago, just to see
whether we were really in earnest IN going
into the tin plate business. From now on
there will be plenty OF English capitalists
visiting our country to establish tin plate
works, and my brother and are ready to
give any responsible concern a free site on
which TO establish a factory ard where
they can get coal at 0ne-thlrd the English
price. The field is certainly attractive.
The free trade press charged me with
advocating the imposition OF the increased
tin plate duties when ! was IN congress.
The truth Is, ] did urge the increased
tariff but it was as a business man and a
citizen, and not as politician. As poll
ticlanl strongly urged against the imposl-
ton of the high rate N the ways and
means committee conference. From
political standpoint. | made a strong argu,
ment against il. Wien | made my talk
the committee drew letters on me from
my own firm, in which we had urged on
the tiftieth congress to pat tariff on tin
plate and we would make it, After had
gotten through my speech Mr.. Mckinley,
like Napoleon that he is, said Let us
do right the first thing, even If the party
does suffer at first, and then /
acknowledge that opposed the duty on
tin-plate, because the American people
were not yet educated up to the point
where they could see the good tn. tariff
would do