The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-01-20

the agreement forming the old steel rail pool.
At Baltimore the other day, on the 22d day
of November to be exact, in the circuit court
room No. ., there was a petition presented
by the Maryland Steel Company, asking the
privilege of selling 100000 tons of steel rails
at $25 ton to one Robert f. Kennedy. The
contract was presented in legal fern. Here
is copy Exhibit A, above referred to-. }
which anybody can inspect for himself. 1t
has a condition that in case Kennedy fails to
take the rails each month he shall pay dol
lar ton, or about thousand dollars day,
as a forfeit, This is the real point in the con-
tract, and shows the existence OF the pool.
Ii is in reality not contract for making rails,
but contract not to make rails.
Now, have been endeavoring to discover
who this Mr. Kennedy is | find he is large
stakeholder, director, and member of the ex-
ecutive board of the Cambria Iron Company.
rival concern to the Maryland Steel Com
pany. He is also secretary of the board Of
control of the present steel rail pool, which
went into existence about the 22d of Novem
Der last Mr.. Kennedy, the secretary of this
pool, makes a contract with a rival concern
at Sparrows Point to pay them about 81 600
day to close up their mill and make no steel.
The effect of retaining duty of % per cent
on steel rails, as the committee propose, will
be to perpetuate the pool. Applause on the
Democratic side
This Sparrow's Point mill, | understand, is
in the district represented by my friend. Mr..
Talbot of MARYLAND. He shonld feel some
interest in q contract which would discharge
the wOrkmen in his district.
But that isnOt all. At Steelton the Penn
sylvana Steel Company, really the same con
Germ as the Sparrow's Point establishment,
get from the pool $50, 600 year to stop max
4 Il, 20 he, I'll
As TO the breaking of the pool, it seems
that the Maryland Steel Company was not
considered very reliable by the other mem
hers of the pool, who suspected that it was
nndersellng the pool rate, which last spring
was S29; therefore Mr.. Carnegie broke the
price and carried it down 10 about S2l 80.
This went on but short time, and then the
new and present pool was organized.
Mr.. DalZell. am not prepared to deny
the statement the gentlemen makes, Tor
have no personal knowledge of the facts, and
am therefore bound to accept his statement.
But if that be true, want TO say 10 him that
| reprobate trusts just as much as he does,
and will cooperate with him in any proper
way for their suppression.
Mr.. johnson of Ohio. ! shall be glad 10
have the cooperation Of the gentleman. As
far as | am personally concerned am Il thor
oughgoing monopolist laughterl, and would
be willing. outside of this Hail. to take ad
vantage of any of the bad laws that you put
upon the statute books; but | will not defend
them here. Laughter and applause on the
Democratic side.
That you can injure industry and hurt labor
by abolshng tariff taxes too quickly and too
completely, deny. You will injure monop
oily and hurt trusts; but you will stimulate
industry and give labor relief. Take the bus
mess in which ! am interested. If you put
steel rails on the free list, as Intend to move,
you will not shut up mills; on the contrary,
you will open them, for the stee-rail pool can
then no longer, out of the extra profits the
tariff gives it, afford to pay for keeping mills
idle. There will be greater activity and a
greater demand for labor in the making of
rails And SO with structural steel. But the
benefit will not end there. The men engaged
in making steel rails and structural steel are
but handful compared with those engaged
in laying rails and erecting buildings and
bridges, and even they are few, compared
with the men such erectlons set al work.
You will lessen the profits of some Of us steel
manufacturers, but you will stimulate indus
try, give idle labor chance for employment,
aud so tend to raise wages.
Mr.. Walker. The gentleman ought to
make it clear as to the cost OF steel rails as
long as he has entered into that subject |
understand the gentleman to say that the raw
material for the steel rails costs SIS ton and
that it costs 81 ton to make steel rails.
Does the gentleman include in that the inter
est, wear and tear, repairs on plant. ETC., or
is it simply what it costs in the mill after the
mill was constructed to make the rails?
Mr.. johnson of Ohio. The gentleman has
not quoted me quite correctly.
Mr.. Walker. did not intend to misquote
You.
Mr.. johnson of Ohio. know that. What
] said was that the price of blooms was
Sl6.50. In the process of manufacturing
steel rails, the bloom is the product immedi.
atey preceding the finished rail, and from
the bloom to the rail it costs 81 ton. That
includes all the items the gentleman names.
Bat it does not cost Mr.. Carnegie that much,
because he does not start with the bloom.
You protectionists talk about the reduction IN
the price of steel rails from 800 ton down
to the present price. That was not due to
the tariff but TO the inventions of such men
as Bessemer and the inventors who followed
him, which enable the manufacturer today to
start with the ore and coke in the blast fur
mace. and with one heat run it through into
the converter, and from there TO the ingot,
and from there to the bloom, and finish it
into IL steel rail without stopping once to re-
heat. Applause on the Democratic side.
Mr.. Walker. Do you know how many
mills there are in the world that are making
steel rails substantially in the same manner
as the Carnegie works are making themf
Mr.. Johnson of Ohio. | suppose in this
country there are bnttwo. There were three.
bnt one is now closed by the pool. That is
the Sparrow's Point Mill have spoken of.
The Cambria Iron Company are changing
their mill aud since you have brought me
into this discussion, J will say that we are
about to change our mill, and will do it
whether you put steel rails on the free list or
not. GApplause on the Democratic side.
Mr. Chairman, what is true of steel is true
of sill industries If we could abolish the
whole iaria on the LIST of February do not
believe there is q single manufacturing indus
try that would close. On the contrary, all that
were not purely exoics, kept alive By iaxes,
would be greatly stimulated Foreigners
wonld want more OF our products, and foreign
markets would be open to our goods. Wheat
would bring more 10 the grower, and labor
would bring more 10 the laborer, and the
masses of our people would want and could
pay for more manufactured goods fou can
mol depress industry and impoversh labor by
RENTING lakes; that is done by imposing
taxes.
Manufactures need no protection. 1t was
not manufacturers who settled this country,
and were the pioneers of its Western growth.
1t was farmers. Import duties on what is
received in exchange for farm products shipp-
ed abroad are equivalent 10 export duties on
those products. If You want to help manu-
factures repeal them. Let the farmers be
prosperous and manufactures will thrive. 1t
was not the tariff that made Cleveland and
Toledo aud Cincinnati and st. Louis and
Chicago manufacturing centers. No seaboard
tariff could protect them. 1t was the growth
of the western agricultural population.
OF all the nonsense talked against the re-
duction of tariff taxes, the claim that they
benefit the workingman is most transparent
The effect of these taxes is to increase the
price of everything that the workingman sells
his labor for, since the money he gets is only
the medium with which he obtains what is the
real object Of his labor. Granted, which is
only true in comparatively few cases, that
such taxes increase the profits of his employ
err Do employers pay larger wages when
they get larger profits? | do not laughter .