Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1892-10-29
Tin PLATE suPERsrlrioN.


ident's statistics.
Mr.. Harrison, in his letter Of accept
ance, reiterates theexplodeG arguments
OF his party in defense of the tin plate
industry, SO called, which has been born
under the midwifery of his administra-
ton.
No one knows better than Mr.. Harri-
son the utter hollowness of the tin
plate pretense up to date, and 1t seems
incredible that he should so far presume
upon the ignorance of the people as to
bring forward the Anticipated subter-
fuge of reasoning so often exploded in
defense of the infant.
"One or twice." says Mr. Harrison,
sin our history the production Of tin
plates has been attempted, and the
price obtained by the Welsh makers
would have enabled our makers to pro-
duce it at profit. But the Welsh
makers at once cutprices toa point that
drove the American beginners out Of
business, and when this was accom-
plished again made their own prices"
Mr. Harrison is inexcusable in thus re-
vamping this logic of Cronemeyer after
it had been so thoroughly disproved in
congressional debates and had come to
be SO thoroughly discredited by the
people.
The history of the price of imported
tin plates for the past twenty-five years
has been gagged strictly by the worlds
market price of iron an pig tin, which
ingredients constitute the entire bulk
of tin plates and 90 per cent of their
cost. Market reports show that in 1872
pig tin was quoted at a159 per ton.
They dropped to e5S in 1878. Philadel-
phia pig iron in 1872 was $50 per ton,
and dropped to $1,000 per ton ,jn9
The corresponding prices of tin 'plAtJs
were eos per box in 1879 and lbs I'D in
ISIS, less percentage decline than
noted in the case of either iron or pig
tin. Yet this is the very period when,
as the parties of high bounties assert,
the Welsh makers put down the price
of their plates in order to run American
makers out In business sense the
Welsh manufacturers were making bet
ter profits in selling at lbs 111d in 1878
than they were in selling for 26s in 1879
owing to the difference in the price of
raw material.
In 1880 there was an advance in the
price of plates for the very reason of
the enhanced cost of pig tin and iron.
Pig iron had advanced to Sal in Febru-
airy, 1880, while pig tin had advanced to
e105 per ton. This increase in the
raw material sent up the price of tin
plates about IS. Since 1880 the price of
tin plates has gradually declined, until
the increased duty was assured in July,
| 1890, when there was an advance of
nearly 81 box, caused by the rush of
American buyers If it was the policy
of Welsh makers to put down prices
whenever there was an attempt on the
part of Americans to start the business,
why did they not lower the price during
the first six months of 1891, when, if
newspaper reports could be believed,
tin plate mills were starting up by the
hundreds? Yet it was during this very
period, owing to speculative demand
for plates, that the price was run up
over 81 per box.
If Mr.. Harrison were plain business
man would he pretend that the fuctua-
tions in tin plates for the two periods
mentioned above, and to which he re-
| fers in his letter of acceptance, were
not the direct result of fluctuations in
the raw material of which they were
made?
1t lacks only few days of two years
since the Mckinley law was enacted.
The reports quoted by Mr.. Harrison
show that 13,636,719 pounds of tin and
terne plates have been produced. OF
this amount 0, 1O7, 1919 pounds were sim
ply roofing iron with mixture of lead
and tin in the coating. During this
time the American consumption of tin
plates, according to the returns of the
government, were something over L.
100000. So it appears that an
industry which its promoters pro m
Used would supply the whole require
ments within nine months has sup
piled less than one per cent. of such re-
quirements Up to the 31st of March
last it was shown that tin plates had
been advanced to consumers, through
increased price of plates and duty paid
| thereon, $50, 736, S0SaO. Add to this
duty paid on importation for the last
quarter of the fiscal year ending 1902,
over 81, 600, 900, and we have total out
lay of nearly s95,oOO,OOO. The only
thing to be credited against this enor-
nous expenditure is the wages paid to
imported Welshmen for Timing this 49,
SAG, 719 pounds, which at 10 cents per
box, the established price, would
amount to SIG, 376.O4, less than 80 cents
received to every $3.50 paid out.
Would Mr. Harrison as manager of a
business corporation not backed by a
government bounty and organized
under the expectation and assurance
that the industry would be sclf-support-
ing in less than nine months, felicitate
himself in realizing that after two years
the industry of which he is the respon-
sible head had cost the company $25,
600, 1000, and that the only asset was a
labor account of sl6,3740i; in other
words, that the concern had paid out
500 for every go cents reccived?-T. H.
Bunting, in National Provisioner.
Euft n.