The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-10
BRYAN AND THE TIN-PLATE INDUS
TRY.

The men who find employment in what
are known as the protected industries
should be the last to vote for Mr., Bryan.
| OF all the free-traders in the West four
and six years ago he was the most ultra.
He was on the committee which framed
| the Wilson BILL which had no redeeming
| features. In his speech that bill he de-
clared that if he could have his way every
vestige of protection in the tariff would be
wiped out.
The free coinage of silver is a radical
free-trade measure, which Mr.. Bryan can
consistently advocate en- that ground.
Should the country go to a silver basis
| duties can be paid practically in silver bull
lion, as any free-coinage bill which the sill
verites would pass when they should come
to place when free coinage could become
a law, would, like the bill passed by the
Senate in 1890, provide for the issue of legal
tender notes for the coinage value of the
silver bullion. The importer having duties
to pay could take gold and purchase silver
bullion or the legal-tender notes issued on
that bullion and pay his duties. If the gold
dollar would purchase $1.25 of silver funds
the real duties, so far as they protect,
would be reduced % per cent. Later on,
when the glut of silver has reduced the
value and a gold dollar will purchase $3.50
in silver the duties for protection pur-
poses will be reduced one-half. Under such
conditions, either many factories would be
compelled to shut down, unless the num-
Der of dollars now paid in gold or its
equivalent in wages should be paid In sill
yer, in which event the actual reduction
of wages by the deprecated money would
bring them to the foreign level.
The one industry which the free-traders
of the Bryan school fought by detraction
and ridicule was the Mckinley industry of
making tin plates. During 1892 these men
insisted that tin plates were not being
made in this country. The Sentinel and
every paper in Indiana now supporting
Bryan published articles and cartoons rid
iculing the tin-pate industry. But the in
dustry got a hold. 1t is now giving en-
ployment to thousands of people. 1t is one
of the most promising industries in the gas
belt, but it is not fraction of what it may
be when a more liberal tariff shall be en-
acted.
What was Mr. Bryans record In regard
to the tin-plate industry? Simply the rec
ord of a rabid free-trader and the malg-
nant foe of the tin-plate industry in par
ticuIar. The Wilson bill, which passed the
House, made the duty on tin plates 90 per
cent. ad valorem, while the duty upon the
plates before being timed was 80 per cent
If this bill which Mr.. Bryan voted for in
the House had become law there would
not have been tin-plate mill now running
in the United States. The plates for i'm
portation would have been invoiced at less
than their value, so that the duty would
not have afforded any protection.
Fortunately, when the Wi,son-B Bryan bill
came to the Senate such men as Brice and
Quay were able to change the iron schedule
duties. In the Mckinley law the duty was
2 is cents a pound; in the present tariff
law it is 1-5 cents. Under existing con-
ditions the tin-plate factories are able to
keep at work because the managers look
for better conditions. A few days since a
man who is familiar with the conditions of
of the duties would have if the country
should pass to a silver basis, or if Bryan
should be elected, gave it as his opinion
that not tin-plate factory in the coun-
try would be running thirty days after such
a catastrophe.