St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-03-16
A COSTLY INFANT

"a Great Industry Killed" is the
startling caption given by the Pioneer
Press to an editorial which "views with
alarm" the proposition of the Wilson
Dill 10 reduce the tax OH imports of tin
plates from 90 cents a pound to l 9
cents a pound. This reduction of one
cent pound, the mere threat of it, has
''paraiyzed'' the tin plate factories
which Sprang into existence under the
stimulus of McKinleyism.
This youngest of the infants affords
the best Illustration of the practical
workings OF policy to create and main
tain manufactures by means of the tax
Ing power. 1t is one of those in which
the data are so explicit, the confusion of
materials so slight that, like the sugar
bounty, the cost of the experiment can
De accurately aScertained Parents do
not usually count the cost of rearing
their infants, but when the nation goes
into the business, and every one has to
help loot the bills. it is just as we'll to
reckon the cost aud ascertain if the IN
FAINT is worth the money. If it isn't, the
sooner 1T dies and is decently inferred.
the regrets OF the family. the better.
Inc average consumption of the coua-
try prior to the act of 1890 was about
690,C00,0 900 pounds of tin plate annually.
For the year ending June 80, 1893, the
domestic product was I00 900, 600, and
the imports 95,000,000 pounds. These
figures enable us to get at what this
precious infant. this ''great Industry
whose speedy death the Pioneer Press
goes into spasms of grief Over-cost us
last year, when taken with the data as
to prices, domestic ami foreign. The
New York price of domestic tin plate,
averaged for December, 1898, was S4.SS
for 100 pounds of IL, 14x20 sheets. the
standard. The import price. that is the
price at the foreign port of shipment.
was during the same time 50 so per 100
pounds. The tax of 81 90, added to the
foreign price, made the imported plate,
duty paid, cost S4 70. TO this would
have to be added the freight and other
charges, which would bring the cost 10
to about that of the domestic plates,
showing that the infant here was rx-
plotting the protection for all it was
worth.
If there were no tax the cost of plates
at the port of entry would have been
about 81 cents pound, and the cost of
the quantity used last year would have
been SIS, 765,0 900. If there had been
revenue tax of one cent a pound, the
cost would have been S25, us, 900. at
the December average of ASS cents
pound the 695. 100000 pounds consumed
in 1898 cost the users S33, 9l6,OOO. The
Mckinley tax added SIS, $50, 900 to what
the cost would have been il there were
no tax; and. if there had been revenue
tax OF cent pound only. the addi-
tional cost to the users of tin plate be-
cause of the Mckinley effort to rear the
infant was So, 100000.
AS the infant produced last year 10O,-
OOO.OOO pounds. and the cost of mainte.
nance was IS, 100000. it is clear that our
youngeS! industrial baby cost the coun-
try S.29 cents for each pound of tin plate
1t made. In the three years that it has
been developing, with all the stimulus
OF a Is per cent tax bonus and unlimited
capital behind it. it has produced only a
sixth of the quantity used. With this
counting of the cost. with this unflat-
terlng showing of The growth of the
youngster, if it should happen that the
reduction of the tax to 1.2 cents pound
should be the death of the infant, we
believe that the American users of tin
plate will endeavor to bear the loss
with equanimity, aid they may even be
IN nd in TO
iation that Patrick found when his little
pig died-the reflection "What a great
hog it would have been had it lived.'