The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-06-26
GREEDY IRON TRUSTS.
MANUFACTURERS ALL ASK FOE
HIGHER TARIFF RATES

While Prices OF Bolts, Nails, shoveis,
Rails, Etc, Have Been Advanced
80 20 300 Per Cent. at Home. But
Not 60 Foreigners.
The manufacturers OF bolts and
nuto, following tho example OF the
nailmakers and manufacturer OF
shovels and tho combined producers
in several other branches Of the highly
protected iron and steel industry,
have formed a combination, the first
effect OF the movement being an in.
crease Of prices by City per cent The
news was first published in n dispatch
from Anderson, Ind, saying:
"The formation Of "A trust by al
The iorty.threo bolt manufacturers Of
the United States, with the exception
OF the Anderson Iron and Bolt Com
pany, Of this city. was effected yester-
daY. II will 60 into effect at once"
The organization does not appear 10
have been completed until few days
later. Press dispatches from Boston
published by the newspapers gen.
orally the New York Tribuneando other
high tariff organs includedl, an
nounced "the successful conumma-
ton" Of the combined manufacturers
plans and the increase Of fifty per
cent in prices. whether there will
be a further advance or not cannot be
told" said these dispatches, cas- the
prices are to be made from month to
month.
We now learn that the scheme was
perfected under the direction OF the
Commissioner Of the Nail Pool, a com
bination which has increased the base
price of wire nails at the mills by 200
per cent, and that of cut nails by Dos
per cent, since May last, the advance
having been from IS cents per keg to
80. 80 in the first case and from 70
cents to 49,. 80 in the second. This IS
the combination which exports more
than 20, 900, 600 pounds of nails per
annum aud sells to the foreigner for a
price less by 81 per keg than that
which the American buyer Is com
PEELED to pay. Referring to this out
rageous increase Of the price of nails,
a report published in Boston, where
the Commissioner Office is situated,
says:
1.-The profit to the manufacturers is
now from sl.20 to S1.5O per keg. The
Bolt and Nut Pool will operate in the
same manner, and it is understood that
the Commissioner receives l cent q
keg on the $1,000 kegs of nails
manufactured annually, and q similar
percentage Oh the bolts manufactured.
AS the price is to be made from month
to month, manufacturers are cautioned
against selling to any dealer more than
one months supply
The nailmakers, the boltmakers, the
manufacturers OF steel rails, and all
the other combined manufacturers il
the iron and steel industry who are
compelling the people Of this country
to pay outrageous ring prices while
they sell to foreigners at a great re
duction and prove by their export
trade that they need no tariff duties
whatever to project them against the
competition of foreign goods here a
home, are shouting for Mckinley ant
eagerly looking forward to the time
when the Republican party shall in
crease the tariff duties which they nov
use as instruments of extortion. They
want higher rates, in order that they
may be able to exact even highe
prices from consumers in the United
States. The Republican party in Con
gress voted few weeks ago to in
crease their tariff duties by fifteen pc,
cent. and promised to give more II
1897 or 1898. Consequently there j
a great Republican campaign fund al
ready in sight. N. Y. Times.