The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-02

II any one had predicted when Maj. Nc
I Rinley was pushing his tariff bill through
! congress that the time was not distant
when American iron would be sold in Eu-
rope IN competition with English iron. he
would have been laughed at. and invited
10 retire 20 an insane asylum. II may be
recalled that when the Mills tarif bill was
before congress. in which there were con-
siderable reductions in the duties on iron
and steel products. Maj. Mckinley. repre-
senting the minority OF the ways and
means committee. declared that the re-
auctions insured the handing over Of our
steel rail market TO our English rivals"
He also said that the Mills bill offered
such further sweeping encouragement TO
the importation OF iron and steel in vari-
Gus forms. that the attention OF the
country needs 10 be specially directed TO
H. and TO the sweeping destruction which
would be sure 10 follow in its path"
And yer We have a tsrif in which the
duties on iron and steel products are lower
than those proposed by the Mills bill. and
what do we see? In dispatch in the
Morning News yesterday from Birming-
ham. Ala, il is stated that the Tennessee
Coal Iron and Railroad Company is about
to send a representative to Europe to.
look into the matter Of placing orders for
iron. The dispatch further says that the
Tennessee company now makes iron at
Birmingham cheaper than it can be made
anywhere else in the world. and that it
intends to find a market for its product
in every country where there is a demand
for iron. 1t is also stated that iron pipe
manufactured at Birmingham is being sold
in Japan.
1t would be interesting to know what
Mai. Mckinley and other high protection
lists think of facts like these. In the face
Of them they Will hardly dare insist that
we need high tariff on steel and iron
products to prevent the English from
capturing our iron and steel market
The English are not eiated over the low
duties of the Wilson tariff on iron and
steel. on the contrary. they are very
much alarmed. The Ironmonger, a British
TRACE journal in recent article. asked:
HAS American competition begun" and
then proceeds to say that ship builders at
Glasgow arc getting steel material from
the United States at lower prices than it
can be manufactured for in Glasgow. In
the course of Its article the Ironmonger
says:
1t would be futile and ruinous to hide
the Facts or to play the part of the ostrich.
II we are in for" American competition
which is by no means an impossibility-
we should try TO quit ourselves as British
ers nave always been famed for doing
whenever they have found themselves in
a tight place.
The fact that iron and steel are made
more cheaply in this country now than
elsewhere on the globe is a stupendous
one, and is calculated to arrest the atten-
ton of all thinking men of this country
1t means that the time is not distant
when the south win manufacture iron and
steel for the world She already provides
the cotton, and at no distant day will
manufacture It before she sends It abroad.
Is 1t matter of wonder then, that the
mill men of the east and the farmers of
the west are hurrying TO the south? \
while ago the cry was westward the
course of empire takes its way" In flu
ture it will be, southwark the course Of
empire takes its way.