Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-07-26
A THIN TIN SCHEME.
How the Mckinley Tariff Protects InfaI
industries.

Since the yeraciOuS Eli Perkins Wis
tied those tin mines at Harvey Peak
and overtaxed his very elastic imagin-
alton in written description of their
fabulous wealth, scarcely anything
has been heard of them until now,
when some rather ugly legal proceed
ings brings them once more before the
public If our memory serves us, Eli
went to Harvey Peak as an agent of
the American Protective Tariff league.
He was unable to make a thorough
examination of the vast deposits of
metal because the tin lying on the sur
face over an area of about sixty square
miles, was so dazzling in the bright
Dakota sunlight that his power of
vision was injuriousiy affected His
truth-telling faculties were not par
alyzed, however, for his report was as
dazzling as the Respondent surface of
the great tin deposits had been when
he gazed at them If we recall accu-
rately the substance of his report, he
found that sixty per cent of the sur
face of the earth in the neighborhood
of Harvey Peak was pure tin
The Harvey Peak Tin Mining, Mill
ing and Manufacturing company has
had hard time of it trying to utilize
the vast deposits that burst upon the
enraptured vision of Perkins. The
company is ten years old, but it has
sold no tin in commercial quantities
There was time, we think, when a
few small bricks of metal were made
and distributed as specimens or manu-
featured into campaign badges for the
followers of Mr.. Benjamin Harrison
But no pile of tin bars was erected in
the Black hills in order that the presi-
dent and presidential candidate might
rest one hand on it. and, in that inter
esting attitude, make a few remarks
about the beneficence of abe Mckinley
tariff. 1t was reserved for the English
owners of the greas San Jacinto tin
mine in California to make such con-
tribution to the history of Mckinley
symbolism, but where is the San Ja-
cinto tin mine now? Where is the
Harvey Peak mine, for that matter?
Where is the tin the dazzling sheen ot
which almost blinded Mr.. Eli Perkins?
The San Jacinto mine is stored away
somewhere with the Harrison cam
paign banners and badges and torches
of 1892, and for the latest information
about those marvellous deposits at
Harvey Peak we must refer our read
ers to the suit brought against the
company and the officers of it by GER
tain stockholders in England The
lawyer who represents these plaintiffs
tersely describes the condition of the
concern, as it appears to him, in the
following words: Twenty millions
to its debit; lot of unprO-
ducing and abandoned alleged
mining properties TO its credit,
and not one cent in its treasury"
A very interesting chapter of the
company's history may be disclosed by
these proceedings. The plaintiffs, who
have already procured the appointment
of receiver, assert that $4,000, 600 in
stock and 81, $50, 900 in bonds were
issued upon mining properties valued
at only S25S, 900. Other curious allega-
tions are made on that side, and the
defendants tell an interesting story
for their side of the case. 1t is proba-
BILE that all the facts will come out be-
fore we hear the last of the suit, and
that we shall know what has become
of that principality of tin ore, sixty
per cent. pure metal, that also blinded
poor Eli Perkins when he incautiously
looked at it.
The American people have bone to
pick with the promoters of this COM
pany, but they can more easily reach
the senators and Representatives who
riva1ed Perkins in their descriptions
of the richness OF the Harvey Peak
deposits, and the great political party
that. under the influence of these SEN
ators and representatives, imposed
upon tin, the metal, a duty of four cents
a pound. The arguments to which the
makers of the Mckinley tariff yielded
when they loadeG this duty upon the
raw material of many important indus
tries were those of certain Legislators
who covered pages of the Congress
sional Record with stories of the ia b.
ulous wealth of the Harvey Peak com
pany's mining claims. Some of them
even asserted that these deposits
would soon supply the world" with
tin.
We have yet to discover how these
persons were induced to tell these
stories and just what motives ira
PEELED them. But every manufacturer
who uses the metal knows what the
effect has been. In the ten months
ended on April 80 these manufac-
turers and the consumers of their
wares paid nearly $500, 900 in duties for
the protection" of the Harvey Peak
tin mines. so called. The sum would
have been much larger if a great guam
tity of the metal had not been i'm
ported before July l, 1898 (when the
duty went into effect, in order that
the tax might be avoided Our normal
rate of consumption requires from 80,
COO. 900 to "a, 900, 600 pounds of the met
tai per annum, and this would involve
tariff tax of from 81, 600. goo to 81 $780,
600, but the imports last year rose to
81 900, 900 pounds, for the reason Just
given, so that about six months sup
ply was carried OYER. In the pending
tariff bill the metal is on the free list,
from which it ought not to have been
taken and where it would have re-
manned if Eli Perkins, the protective
tariff league, and little group of re-
publican senators and representatives
had not demanded the imposition of a
duty for the protection of the Harvey
Peak company.-N. Y. Times
A SIGNIFICANT SHOWING.
Money squandered Under the HarrisSn
Administration
In 1870 the ordinary axnaOSaS Of the