The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1892-01-30
HELPED BY TARIFF.
Fifty Thousand American Work
men will be Employed in the
Tin-plate Industry.
Wages will be Higher than In Eng
land but the Product will not
be Dearer.

F. G. Niedringhaus, the st. Louis ex.
congressman, who has established tin.
plate factory in that city, was in Chicago
recently. He said to reporter:
1.-The American people will never abol.
ish the tariff on tin plate because the
whole ques ion has resolved itself down to
whether the American people will get
their tin plate from England and support
$4,000 tin. plate workers there or whether
thew will buy their tin mere and support
$4,000 workmen here. To employ these
$4,000 men to supply the entire conslmp.
tlon in this country will require the ser.
vices of 500 English and Welsh expert tin
plate workers to teach the business to
workmen here, There you are. Either
employ 800 foreigners to establish the in
dustry in this country and give employ
ment to SO, 900 men, or buy all our tin plate
from England and allow these $4,000
Americans to remain in idleness. In
starting a new industry you want few
men fresh from the old established
works in Europe, and they in short time
will teach the methods to The American
workmeD. have imported few skilled
English and Welsh workmen, as they are
absolutely necessary 10 start the tin. plate
plant we are now operating. | didn
not consult ii, because the law is plain and
gives us full permission to bring men over
to start new industry.
1.-The free trade press talks about our
being larif barons. would like to IN
auire if the workmen, an / not we, are the
barons, the bepefciaries of the tariff.
We pay 90 and $3.50 per day to our tin
plate workers which is two and two ard
liz Nhn fhn nj IfSn
tin plates workers The tin plate industry
is protected rs per cent. and the working
man gets 100 to $50 per cent. increase in
wages over the English workman. So it
is the workingmaa who is the tariff baron,
and not the employer.
1.-The American people will not pay
any more for tin-piats than they have in
the past, and hence you will see that in
the next twelve years the tin plate made
here will not te higher in price than
it has been in the past twelve
years. We can not make tin as
cheap as the English factories, but we
can sci. it as cheap as it has been sold by
the foreigners. If we were given work
men from England a,d had only to pay
them English wages we could drive the
English n-plate producers out OF the
business; but as it is, with the increased
wages we will pay, we will only supply the
"I lSays consent to be interviewed,
because | believe it will help in attract
ing Englishmen over here to start up the
works they will be compelled to abandon
over there because of the high tariff.
There was an Englishman spying around
our factory several weeks ago, just to see
whether we were really in earnest in going
into the tin plate business. From now on
there will be plenty of English capitalists
visiting our country to establish tin plate
works, and my brother and are ready to
give any responsible concern free site on
which TO establish factory ard where
they can get coal at one-third the English
price The field is certainly attractive.
The free trade press charged me with
advocating the imposition OF the increased
tin plate duties when | was In congress:
The truth is. did urge the increased
tariff, but it was as business man and a
citizen. and not as politician. As poll
tician strongly urged against the imposi
tion of the high rate in the Ways and
means committee conference. From Il
political standpoint. made strong argu'
ment against it. Wren made my talk
the committee drew letters on me from
my own firm, in which We had urged on
the tiftieth congress to put tariff on tin
plate and we would make it. After had
gotten through my speech Mr.. Mckinley,
like a Napoleon that he is, said: Let us
do right the first thing, even if the party
does suffer at first, and then !
acknowledge that opposed the duty on
tin-plate, because the American people
were not yet educated up to the point
where they could see the good tn. tariff
would do"