Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-30
THE INDUSTRIAL FUTURE.

A numOer OF interviews with iron anu
steel manufacturers, tanners and other
! industrial lines, with regard to the proba-
BILE effect of tariff changes on their inter-
| ests, are published in the New York Post.
! As might be expected from the medium OF
publication, the opinions expressed are to
the effect that they do not think there
will be serious complications, and even
expect business to move forward steadily
and in increased quantities One manu-
facturer alone specifies that if there is
heavy reduction in tariff duties wages
will have to come down, which very nat
ural idea the correspondent Of the Post
proceeds to impeach.
The fact is that opinions of this sort are
of no more value than SO many individual
guesSes, in the absence of any definite
basis on which to predicate the extent and
character of the tariff changes to be made.
If the kind of tariff contemplated in the
Democratic platform is adopted it needs
no expert in a class of industry to foretell
that there will have to be general and
sweeping readjustment of prices and
wages, and that industry will be very
seriously prostrated in the process.
On the other hand there is no
doubt that tariff duties could, as Mr..
Cleveland says, be revised without in
flicting serious embarrassments on capital
or labor. Between the two courses there
are all gradations of greater or less COM
plication. If the tariff changes should not
60 outside the lines laid down by the
Mills bill, the embarrassments would be
important only in special lines of indus
try, and general business would not be
long in adjusting itself to the new regime.
The question undoubtedly is whether Mr..
Cleveland's influence will be able to keep
the hot-heads of his party from making
radical and sweeping reduction in tariff
duties. When it is known what policy
will prevail the predictions as to the
course of business under it will have some
basis to 90 on.
One point appears in these interviews
which has much foundation on truth, and
is well worthy the attention of manu-
facturers. A mining expert is quoted as
saying that American mining machinery
commands a market all over the world,
and is therefore Independent of protec-
ton. The same assertion is made con-
cerning the manufacture of the higher
grades of leather. Similar facts are to be
found in the case of some of the most
highly finished products of Pitts
burg's industries. 1t is a truth that
as the manufactures are carried
into the higher forms-as iron or steel are
turned into the best machines or the most
superior cutlery, and as glass is produced
in the form of the best glassware-they
become independent of protection and
command worldwide markets. In the
manufacture of such articles the best paid
labor is the cheapest, and therefore the
factories that pay the highest wages can
compete most successfully with the cheap
labor of other lands.
This fact contains pregnant sugges-
ton for the best way to guard against any
possible degree of tariff production. De-
velop the higher forms of manufacture
Turn our iron and steel into the best en-
gines, the most finished and highly i'm
proved classes of machinery, tine most
serviceabe tools and the various forms of
cutlery and hardware. Extend the same
process into all the forms of manufacture
where we are now making the initial sta
piles. A good deal of this is already done.
Pittsburg engines, Pittsburg tools and
Pittsburg glassware are sold all over the
world. When the same policy is extended
we will not only have home market for
the great staples of manufacture, but we
will have the world as market for the
finished product
With this policy carried out energetical-
ly and boldly, Pittsburg can more than
hold its own, no matter what degree of
tariff tinkering is undertaken. And in
proportion as it is realized and reinforced
by the increase of our transportation ia
cilities will Pittsburg attain the full posi-
bilities of her industrial greatness.