New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-11-09
THE GREAT TIN SIN.

Somebody reilly ought, for the sake Of COM
mon decency. to do something about this tin
plate business. The thing is public scandal
Cannot some microscopic. or analytical chemist
examine bit of the stuff and find out the Sc
cret Of its natural cussedncss: Certainly
nothing Oh earth was ever more full OF that I'M
amable quality. One might expect to find 1t
sticking out of every sheet of tin in visible
chunks. like warts on toad. such Is the per-
verslty of the stuff which persists in being made
in this country when everybody knows ii can
not be made here. Down to some half dozen
years ago none of the eternal verites command
ed more general or more unhesitatng accept
ance than these: That tariff on tinplate would
Immediately and inevitably increase the price
of tinware to the consumer. and that no mat
ter what protection might be afforded tin
plate could not be manufactured here. One
might doubt the multiplication table. or repudi-
ate the moral law and yet be saved but to be
even the least bit sceptcal on either OF these
basic principles of truth was to be anathema
maranatha forever.
Well. wicked and adulterous generation did
put tariff on tinplate. And what was the re-
suit? Why. the contrary stuff actually refused
to increase in price The wage-earner's dinner
tomato cans stubbornly refused to bulge Po-
litical economy. theology seismology and hyp
notism all demonstrated beyond the shadow of
a doubt that the price must go up. But 1t
didn't. And so the first of the eternal verities
slipped its trolley. Likewise the second. For
the perverse stuff went further, and insisted
upon being made here 1t couldn't be. OF course
Everybody knew that. Philosophy. Delsarte
and the Higher Criticism all forbade 1t and
proved it's impossibility Yet 1t was and Is. and
nobody seems able to stop 1t and make 1t amen
able to the principles Of the universe.
Just see the disastrous results OF its unhal-
lowed conduct. Here is the whole tinplate bust
ness of the Old Country going to the demntion
bow-wows The industry in Wales, says ''rhe
Birmingham Post" "is VIGOROUSLY In n critical
''state and 1t is only kept alive apparently with
1.-THE greatest difficulty. In 1S9l the
quantity of tlnplates shipped from South Wales
reached the gOOdly total Of 44S.OOO tons. valued
lat f7.166G35 Last year the quantity export
''cd was only $4,000 tons valued at f4.2i4.0W.
"Thus i'm four years the tonnage has decreased
nearly 20 per cent. and the value more than 40
''per cent This year the trade seems going from
bad to worse" Now that is ndsputable tcsti-
mony and equally indisputabe is the same a,i-
thority's account Of the causes Of this state OF
affairs: 1.-THE simple explanation Of the matter
"is that the United States which was formerly
1.-THE great market for tnplates. has deserted
"us and is producing on American soil
nearly all it wants That Is one Of the mis-
"chievOus legacies Of the Mckinley tariff"
We submit that this has gone far enough. 1t
doesn't much matter that such measure OF de-
preston has fallen upon South Wales What
hurts worst is that so great an industry should
have been created and should now be pros
perng on American soil. Think Of it.
This Nation. under the mschicvous influence
Of Protective tariff. is actually producing
tinplate" producing on American soil nearly all
it wants" Here Is a shameless creature in the
Treasury Department reporting under date Of
Friday last that the production is steadily in
creasing That means profitable use of millions
Of American capital. and remuneratve employ
ment of thousands Of American workmen, and
an actual reduction of prices to the American
consumer And all Of it In direct defiance OF
the simplest principles Of natural law. Won't
somebody please stop it before 1t goes any fur
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