Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-11-12
HARDWARE FOR THE WORLD.
Costly Raw Material Does Not Prevent
Our Sales Abroad.

A prominent manufacturer of hard
ware, after enumerating all the leading
kinds and the different countries which
we supply with each kind because they
are manufactured cheaper here than
anywhere else, says that Sin almost
everything made in this country the ex-
port price is less than the home price.
The export price must be sufficiently
low to meet foreign competition in for
eign countries. In competing with free
trade England, having free trade ma
terials, the export profit is often small
to the American manufacturer, whose
goods are made of high priced iron,
steel, zinc, lead, etc. But with free
trade in everything we could and should
hold our home market, and immensely
increase our foreign business. Protec-
ton is an internal swindle on labor, but
it helps producers of raw materials WON
derfully to get rich.
81 suppose you will be surprised when
tell you that under conditions of alb
solute free trade, and not a custom house
or customs Office in the United States,
there is not an article in the long list
that covers seven sheets that Connecti-
cut manufacturers could not sell all over
England, Germany and France, and all
Europe, unless prohibited by customs
duties or other laws there. There is not
single article ON the whole seven sheets
the manufacture of which does not cost
less in the United States than in any
other country. The cost of the labor in
the article is less, but the cost of the ma
terials is more in this country.
LAS an illustration of the fact that our
labor is the cheapest in the world, we
select from long list of articles men
toned by this manufacturer what he
has to say of three different classes OF
| hardware, axes, handsaws and bolts.
"Axes, hatchets and sledge hammers
American manufacturers knock all
Europe higher than the moon on axes.
| No Australian woodcutter or lumber
man will take European AK as gift
when he can buy an American ak, and
| the same remark holds good almost as
universally in the hatchets Same on
! axes and hatchets in South America and
| Central America and West Indies.
! American manufacturers pay much
| higher for the iron and steel in axes and
| hatchets but they make or buy the ham
| dies for less than the European manu-
| facturers On the whole, the European
| has the balance in his favor in the ma
terials of iron, steel and wood, but we
beat them TO death on the cost of labor
in forging, grinding, polishing and
handling the axes and hatchets, and be-
sides there never lived an Englishman
in England nor German in Germany
who could or did fashion an ak so that
it would hang right
| "Handsaws-The steel material is %
per cent. more or less higher here than
in England. Therefore we cannot ex-
port the lower grade of handsaws, be-
cause in the lower grades the steel is the
chief element of the cost. But we do
export the high grades in which the
finish forms large part of the cost,
because we get the labor at less cost for
the same result than the English cost.
BOLTS, agricultural, carriage, ETC.
The cost of the labor in the manufacture
of bolts is lower in the United States
than anywhere else. The cost of labor
is the same on a short bolt as on long
bolt. A 3-inch bolt has head, a screw
thread on the other end and tapped
screw nut So that in the manufacture
of short bolts, as three to six inches in
length, the labor is the same as on the
longer bolts, as seven to eighteen inches.
But the iron of which the bolts are
made costs, say, one cent per pound
more in the United States than in Eng
land. Therefore, as you will see from
the above, the English manufacturer
has the advantage on raw material cost
and the American manufacturer has the
advantage on labor cost.
On bolts of six inches in length and
larger than three-sixteenths of an inch
| in diameter the advantages balance each
other. In shorter bolts than six inches
the Americans labor vanquishes The
English manufacturer. In longer bolts
than six inches the English cheaper iron
vanquishes the American manufacturer
The consequence is that the Ameri.
cans export bolts any length-of three
sixteenths of an inch in diameter and un.
der, and any diameter of bolts that are
under six inches long. The English
manufacturer exports all the bolts more
than three-sixteenths of an inch in diam
eter and over six inches in length. The
average demand favors the English The
American home price is governed by the
com bination and varies but little, except
occasionally when there is quarrel il
the usually harmonious family. The
price for export is to meet English good:
on six inches and under.
"A change in the tariff of 10 to 90 pei
cent. would not be noticed by the asso
citation. The price has formerly beer
very much under the present prices, but
those times of low prices were who1
there was no association to control prices
My observation has taught me thai
the greatest obstacle to American com
petition in foreign markets-to nearly
every class of goods-is the high price
of our raw material. Take off the dut,
and we will send our goods everywhere.
Er-eA..,