Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-02-04
M'KINLEY'S TIN TAX.
A NOTE Of DISBURSEMENT FROM
THE BLACK HILLS.

Little Tin There and Hard to Get At.
Expensive Works Necessary-A Case of
Protection According to william Me-
KiuIey. Jr.
A CORES pondent of New York trade
journal writes as follows about the tin
deposits il the Black Hills:
There is no doubt that there are
enormous deposits of tin ore in Dakota,
but to my mind it is in such shape as to
make its mining problematical. Some
of the schists are 100 feet thick, but the
cassiterite runs unevenly, being found
in strings, patches and sheets, with dip
of about 70 dogs. This is similar to the
Cornwall deposits, making constant
change of location in working. The per-
centage will probably yield less than ,
per cent. Opposed to this expensive
working is that of Malacca, free from
arsenic, su phur and wolfram; in other
words, as pure as it can be, picked up
from the streams by the cheapest labor
on the face of the globe; and when that
is exhausted then comes the stream tin
of Queensland and New South Wales.
The problem now in the Black Hills re-
gion is Ma lacca stream tin plus coolie
labor, Importation and duty, against
Black Hills tin, machinery and high
priced labor"
The problem here referred to Illus
trates very forcibly the absurdity of the
Mckinley duty on pig tin which will
come into operation July l, 1898. There
is tin in tie Black Hills, but it can be
had only by costly and laborious mining
operations. The difficulties to be over
come, the expensive machinery to be
built and the wages to be paid make it
necessary, as the mine owners claim,
that they get higher price for their tin
than we pay for that which now comes
to US from the Straits of Malacca.
In order to help them in getting this
higher price Mckinley took tin from the
free list and imposed duty of cents a
pound on it. Tin now comes in free and
sells for about 20 cents pound. When
the new duty goes on next year the price
will be "a cents; and if by that time the
English company now operating in the
Black Hills mines has any tin TO sell it
will demand this tariff price of "a cents.
That Is what protection is for.
Here the question of tariff reform, the
question of common sense, comes in: Is
it not wiser to buy our tin from Ma
lacca at 20 cents as at present than
to pay 24 cents for it from the
Black Hills? The Almighty has put tin
into the streams of Malacca in such
forms as to admit of easy and cheap
production. Men whose minds are not
perverted by protectionist fallacies look
upon this as 50 much clear gain for the
world.
If the tin is in the loose sand of the
river beds then no deep shafts Will have
to be sunk through solid masses of rock,
no powder viii need to be wasted in
blasting and 10 expensive hosting ma
chinery will be called for.
But, according to the protectionist's
position, the Almighty made a mistake
in putting tin in such forms in Malacca,
made mistake in making it possible for
US to get what we want with the least
possible effort. Hence Mckinley steps
in to rectify the system Of the universe
with 4 cent tax on tin!
Just as well tax the rain falling freely
from the heavens in order to protect an
irripatiucr cOInnaDVl