Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-10-28
WELL, TOLD TRUTHS.

The following extracts from speeches
d liyered in this county by Frank M.
Dyer, will bear careful perusal. Mr..
Dyer has thoroughly informed himself
in regard to the facts of which he
speaks, and his plea in favor of re-
duction of tariff taxation is simply
unansWerable:
No one is more vitality interested in
rail road construction than is the
American farmer. No class of people
furnishes an equal amount of freight.
We are building, say, a thousand
miles of road in this state. Upon the
est Of the road interest bearing bonds
are issued the amount of bonds de-
pending on the cost of construction.
steel in the rolling stock, tax on the
rails in the road bed increases the cost
of construction, increases the interest
on the bonds, which must be paid
from the money the farmers pay as
freight both on their grain and live
stock sent to market and on goods re-
ceived in return.
In roundabout way, but none the
less surely, our farmers pay year
after year, over and over again, in
freight rates the increased cost of rail
way construction due to the tariff tax.
Remember that high freight rates re-
duce the value to the farmer of each
pound and bushel he sends to market.
Great Britain is our only real COM
petitor in the manufacture Of steel
rails, and not two per cent. of the
rails used here are imported.
We are boastingly told because of
the tax on steel rails the price has
fallen here, and but for the tax, for
eign rails coming here, would have
ruined our rail mills, blown out our
furnaces, and exorbitant prices for
foreign rails been exacted from our
people Great glee is shown by pro-
tectionists when telling that rails were
selling here in 1873 for $98 per ton,
and NOW under protection they sell
from S39 to $40 per ton.
To say that the price of rails has
refuse to show any relation or con-
nection between the two facts is to
make plaything of reason AS well
might one say, that because at the
time the birds return in spring the
farmer sows his grain, the farmer
sows because the birds return.
What are the facts in regard to
steel rails? And here we are met with
the plea that the tax is necessary to
keep up wages.
There can be no defence of the tax
on the ground of equalizing wages here
and abroad. Including all materials
and labor it costs and has cost for
several years, $1,000 a ton to make
steel rails. Carroll d. Wright, p. 1861.
In England steel rails can be, and are
made for $500 per ton, Wright p.
10Y, difference all told Of $4.00 per
ton.
The labor cost here on ton of
rails, and that means mining the coal
and iron ore, quarrying the limestone.
converting coal into coke, ore into
pig iron, pig iron into railroad bars,
is S1I.59 The labor cost in Great
Britain is S7.S1. Wright, p. p. 173-
A.. Here then is difference in labor
cost of 1913 per ton; yet to cover this
difference the tax has ranged from
SIS to SIT per ton. In justice be
it said that the Mckinley tax is Sl3.44
on long ton and $1,000 on short ton
tax more than three times the differ
ence in labor cost.
Now, what is the use of telling our
people that the tax is not added to
the price of the rails made here, when
in 1890 the cost was $4,000, the tax
$500, and domestic rails were selling
here at $500 ton. (p. 114S Hear
ings before Mckinley Committeo).
l pretend to say that the tax on steel
rails is not only unwise because I'M
necessary, but, for the same reason,
unjust; that steel rails with untaxed
coal, untaxed coke, untaxed pig iron,
can be made here cheaper than any
where else on earth; that being cheaper
more would be sold; and that means
more employment to workmen, and
better rates to shippers of goods.
/ hold in my hand record, covering
twenty years, showing the production
of steel rails in the Uuited States, the
selling price per ton here and in Eng
land, the tax collected from our peo-
pie by the steel rail ring, and you will