Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-01-18
THE TRUSTS REBEL.
Efforts Of Protection-Favored Bsrons II
Obstruct the Wilson Bill.

Efforts of Protection-FavoredB arons u
Obstruct the Wilson Bill.
The favored beneficiaries Of McKin.
leyism are making great outcry
against the Wilson bill. Beaten in two
general elections, in spite OF their cor
ruption funds, they now seek to nullify
the verdict of the people by intimidating
or wheedling congressman. They even
stoop to the despicable artifice of driv-
ing their operatives, under fear of dis
missal, to petition against the passage
of a law to relieve them of burdensome
taxes on their necessaries
Congress is not likely to be DETECTED
from its duty by this post-election cam
paigning. The facts of recent history
are not SO soon forgotten. The collar
and cuff manufacturers of Troy and
the pottery men of Trenton are among
the loudest of the protestants, and
these are in brief the facts in relation
to them:
The Mckinley act increased the duty
on linen collars and cuffs from 40 per
cent to 6s per cent. The combination Of
manufacturers not only failed to in
crease wages proportionately, but with
III ninety days after the Mckinley act
took effect they reduced the wages 10
per cent. The girls struck, and after a
contest lasting three weeks, in which
they received the support of the Fed
erationof Labor, the employers yielded
to threatened boycott and took them
back at the old wages
In other words, the men who bought
and paid for the tariff" as the Penn.
sylvania ironmaster said, kept all the
advantage of increased duties to them
selves. Neither Gov. Campbell nor any
other democratic speaker was able to
find one case of increased wages due
to the tariff in the great campaign OF
1890.
The case of the potteries was similar.
The Mckinley act gave to the makers
of crockery and pottery the equivalent
of 5 per cent. increase in duty. Within
three months seven members of the
Trenton pottery trust made a reduc.
tion of % per cent. in wages. There
was strike, which attracted attention
all over the country. At the end of
several weeks compromise was made
under which the workmen accepted a
reduction Of Z per cent.
Early in 1892 the Philadelphia Press,
which is now clamoring for a perpetual
ton of the worse-than-war tariff, pub
lished statement showing that the
profits of Ave members of the pottery
trust for 1891 were ''s41O,O00, or almost
one-third of the capital stock invested"
The prospectus of the combine guar
anteed per cent. on 81, 100000 of pre-
ferred stock and estimated the dividend
on 81, 75O, 900 of common stock at ver
10 per cent"
The Wilson bill puts the duty on col.
lars and cuffs at IS per cent, which is
but per cent. below the tariff of 1883,
and is, as the Times points out, Tex.
actly the rate proposed by the repub-
lican and protectionist tariff commits
sion of 1882"
The Wilson bill puts the duty on
crockery and pottery at from 20 to 45
per cent-a reduction of to Is per
cent Considering that these articles
are common necessaries of the people
the trust ought to be thankful that it
has so much protection.
There is not schedule in the demo
cratic bill that is not as high as the adj
vocates of protection deemed adequate
when our Infant industries" were
forty years younger.
The cutlery of the trusts and com.
bines is both impudent and ill-timed.
The people have twice demanded a re-
formed tariff, and their will must b.
made lawn. Y. World.