The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1896-11-14
TIN PLATE INDUSTRY
No Longer an ESpsrlmcnt-Tai.s Proph-
#7 cts OF tho I'Hai.

New York Mail and Express: When
an cnternrislng American seriously
proposed to manufacture tin plates IN
this country, the FREQ traders, grcnt
mud small, laughed at him ug mn niidac.
lous dreamer who didn't know what he
was talking about. They had got IL into
their heads that some mysterious law
OF nature mnde II physically impossible
10 produce tin plates anywhere outside
OF British territory, and they Intlmated
that the man who attempted to do 80
was trying TO dlsurrange the establish.
Cd ocder OF the universe. The making
or TN plates In America wGs prCpos-
ferrous. None ever had been made here,
salu thc free trader. and. therefore.
none ever could be. That was the whole
scopo ana conclusion or the free trade
argument, and It Impressed Mir. Cleve-
land so profoundly that he once volun-
tarIly obligated himself TO eat nil the
tin plate ever manufactured In this
country. =
This sort Of opposition, instead OF
discouraBing the tin plate protector,
merely stimulated him. He got his cap
llal together and buNt his min, and,
WIFI the moderate protection provided
by the Mckinley law, began operations.
Inc enterprise was IL success from tho
beginning. lie not only made tin plates
equal to the best OF the British output.
but he introduced appliances and pro-
cesscs which have greatly chenpened
the cost OF production. The Industry Is
permanent one in this country. II has
come to stay. It's success Is thus frank
~ recognized by writer In Chambers
journal" one OF the ablest and most
conservative OF all the London re-
Views:
THE export OF tin plates from the
United Kingdom has averaged over
Tour millions sterling In value for each
OF the past three years. In n recent
report OH the American tin plate In
dustry,our consul In Chicago notes that
THIS manufacture has long passed the
experimental stage. The American IN
dustry comprises one hundred and thIr-
ty-seven mills, and gives employment
TO thirty thousand men. Seventeen OF
these works were In pennsylvania,cm
ploylnE i've hundred and flfty-scvcn
persons, In 1895. II the steel trust COM
ranieS should advance prices, It Is ex-
nected by many that this will tell upon
the American tin plate makers, and al
low British places to come In again In
large quantities, as was the case some
years ago"
This Acknowledgement will not be-
pleasing TO the narrow-mnded free
traders who have Insisted that tin
making In America was contrary 10 the
law OF nature, but II Is a plain rccog-
milton OF facts which have been per-
fectly clear to reasonable observers all
along. With an abundance OF the raw
materials at hand. there was no more
reason why we should not make tin
plates than there was thit we should
not make Iron or steel The develop
ment oc the tin plate Industry in this
country Is simply an instance of what
capital. enterprise and labor can &C.
complish when cooperating together
Under the fostering influence OF protec-
ton. II Is a standing rebuke to the
sneers and doubts OF free trnde scOff-
era, and 1t adds great and expanding
Interest to the broadening lines OF
American enterprise.