The Coconino weekly sun., 1895-08-01
NOT VET KNOWN.
Tho Actual Consequences of Democratic
 Tariff TinkerinG Are to Come.


 Tho Actual Consequences of Democratic
 Tariff Tinkerins Are to Come.
 Our democratic friends are growing fond of the assertion that importations of manufactured products are not as large as in some prosperous months under the republican duties, and that their new tariff has therefore done no harm. It is curious to see them defend d tnrift which was avowedly intended to break down protection on the ground that it has not broken down protection. That this is in a large measure true, that the tariff finally passed by barter with the sugar and whisky and other monopolics did in almost every particu- lar contemptuously disregard and vio- late tho principles which the demo- crats had professed to hold sacred and pledged themselves to carry into effect, everybody knows who is capable of an opinion on the subject But it does not follow that the changes made have done or will do no harm
 A single case may be taken as illus trating many. The democrats who raShly asserted in October, 1899, and oven later, that there was not single mill in the country actually making tiu plates, were by no means disposed to hare any such mill left in the country to convince them of persistent lying any longer than they could prevent it. Un- dcniably their reduction of the duty to tho old rate of 1.9 cent per pound, under which for many years it had been found impossible to establish or maintain tin plate production here, was intended and expected to stop that production, and we have yet to see whether it will or not, But until re- gently the manufacture here has been sheltered by the unprecedented cheap ness of the materials, Bessemer steel and fuel, and by lower wages than had been known in the country for many years. These things kept the tin plate manufacturers from destruc- tion, although the shipments from Great Britain to this country in May were over a sixth larger than last year, and in five months ending with May over an eighth larger.
 But it was not to be expected, nor by any patriotic man was it desired, that the wages of iron and coal miners, trausportcrs and furnace hands, should continue as low as they had to be in order to make SlO Besscmer pig a possibility. In time the mine owners, coke workers and fur mace men began to restore wages in part Then Besscmer pig rose, and, instead of SlO in March, it has reached nor Tho oI ;,, the cost of Bessemer billets, tin plate bars and black sheets and in .he wages of workers all around has now gone so far that the plates can actually be imported little more cheaply than they can be made here, and if this state of things continues the industry with many thousand men is doomed. Possibly foreign prices may also rise some; possibly the withdrawal of an important demand for plates and for Bessemer steel may compel lower prices hete, even if at the expense of reduced wages again. It is yet impos- .sible to say what the effect of the new duties has been, because the ex- pectation of a democratic tariff had put wnwages and prices so far, in almost every department, that any revival of business whatever necessarily involved some advance.
 A similar experience is possible in branches of the woolen trade. So long as American wool was cheaper, shrink age and quality considered, than the wool available for manufacture in other countries, and so long as wooden workers here were willing to go along at the tremcndously-reduced wages paid in expectation of democratic tariff. the domestic makers could bare ly hold their own against competition, although foreign importations enor- mously increased-from 5,5lG, 100 yards of worstcds in five months of 1894 to %, S27, 500 in five months of 1895. But now wool has gone up about cents for some kinds, and it becomes ques- tion whether the manufacture in cer- tain branches can continue. The re- suits of democratic tariff tinltering are not yet known, but enough is known of them to make it clear that great in dustrics of the country are now eX- posed to dangers against which, for many years under republican protec- tion, they were entirely tree.-N. r.. Tribune.
 Hope Deferred.
 Disastrous experience appears to haze