Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-02-24

Imports of these goods were valued at
only $1,317, 2O3
z
in 1892. This explains the unprecedented
prosperity which has come to pearl but
ton workers under the new tariff"
Has The Press forgotten that only one
week before it and the New York Trib-
une had chronicled the fact that the pearl
button workers Of New York and Brook
Ign to about $50 in number had gone out
on strike because of a reduction in wages
amounting to at least So per week, cou-
pied with the announcement that "most
OF tho pearl button makers are Aus
TRANS" who "are ignorant of the Gus
toms Of this country" Well, they will
soon learn the ways of political and tariff
industries. But incidentally the cause of
the November slump" is explained.
The pearl button workers, like most of
the tin plate workers, are foreigners who
have not been here long enough to vote.
By 1896 the tables may be turned if these
industries can be induced to sojourn with
us until then. But here lies another OBJ
stacle that must be overcome-the indus
tries do not stick here. On the same day
Jan. 30) on which The Press paid such a
fine compliment to the pearl button in
dustry the press dispatches told us that
the pearl button factory at Eau Claire,
Wis, about which the Republicans said
SO much during the campaign, had closed,
and all because the unappreciative pro-
prietors came to the conclusion that
pearl button making in the northwest
is not paying investment"
And yet Mckinley did his full duty to
this industry. We are told that a line
of pearl buttons sold in Austria for 10
kreutzer, or cents, per gross, has to pay
duty of $50 per cent before it can be
sold in our markets. Perhaps the indus
try is being pampered and petted to death.
Sad fate!
The tin plate industry is suffering the
same fate from the hands of it's friends.
Old factories-that is, old for infants
are expiring about as rapidly as new ones
are born. A glance at Mr.. Ayers reports
on tin plate production shows that of the
5 concerns reporting for the first quarter
had either gone out of the business or
decreased their output by the third quar-
ter, and that Z of the II reporting for the
second quarter have exhibited the same
symptoms of decay. Even the Mckinley
Tin Plate company Qimited) of Pitts
burg ungraciously dissolved by vote Of
it's stockholders on June 4, 1892.
Great preparations were made by Nc
kinley and his friends to develop the
untold wealth hidden in our tin mines.
As soon as our tin plate establishments
were in good running order they would
need tons and tons of pig tin. This was
to come from our own inexhaustible sup
plies in California and South Dakota. A
prospective duty Of cents per pound
was put on pig tin to encourage the COM
panies that had already guaranteed to
supply us in a few years with genuine
American tin" Everything was going
to work SO smoothly and quickly that, ae
the Mckinley ways and means commit
tee told US, by July, 1891, when the duty
ontin plate will take effect, we will be in
dependent of Wales, and 1.-THE advanced
duty will not enhance the cost to con-
sumers."
Every body knows to what great disap-
pointment the political friends of these
industries were doomed. On July I, 1891,
we We're not making per cent of the tin
plate consumed here, and we have never
yet made more than about per cent of
our consumption. Everything seemed to
go wrong. The Temescal tin mines in
California, which began SO auspiciously,
soon showed signs of weakness, fickered
and then went out of existence. All hopes
We're turned to Harvey peak, South Da-
kota. This mountain contained enough
tin to supply the whole world for ages to
come, we were told by Eli Perkins and
other enthusiastic Republicans and ex-
plorers. The whole mountain was but
an immense pile of almost pure tin.
Well, to make long story short, the
news came on Feb. 2, 1898, that the Har-
ney Peak Tin Milling company, which
had tided past the November election of
1892, had shut down permanently, throw
ing between 800 and 400 men out of en-
ployment.
Perhaps, as Republicans are won't to
tell US, these tender pearl button and tin
plate infants are being scared to death as
fast as they get old enough to compre-
bend the result of the last election; per
haps, and this seems more probable, be-
cause they began to decline before cleo
ton, the strong tariff stinulants were
too much for their weak and unacch-
mated constitutions. 1t should be re-
membered that most of our present in
dustries were infants from 10 to 100 or
more years old, with well developed
stomachs when our first congress gave
them tariff stimulants of from 2to 10per
cent strong. Such being the case, it be-
comes the duty of our next congress to
cease giving tariff stimulants or to pre-
scribe them only in a highly diluted form,
Or these industries which have cost us
| tens Of millions of dollars will die before
they cut their teeth.-Byron W. Holt.