The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-29
WHAT is 1T FOR.


morning carried an item that is, in its
significance, vastly disproportionate to
the space it occupied. Eight lines suf-
feed to tell how, in the British house
of commons, the secretary of state for
india, answered member who asked
why the government bought Of the
Maryland Steel company the 7,70S tons
of steel rails needed for the West India
railway, instead of buying them Of a.
domestic rail mill. 1t was because the
American tender was f8,675 below the
lowest British bid, the secretary re-
piled. That shows that the conditions
that, last year, gave to our mills the
contract for the rails wanted by Japan
were not. as was then urged in excuse
by those who were laying all Industrial
calamities upon the Democracy, an ex-
ceptional sale to get rid Of stock I'M
salable at home, but are permanent
We have come to that condition where
we can put up far more effectual and
lasting barrier against exterior compe-
tition than any tariff can afford. be-
cause we can make, transport to for
elgn markets and there undersell our
competitors
George F. Parker, our consul at Biz
mingham, transmits to the state de-
partment an article from the Times on
the invasion of English markets by
American iron and steel, closing his
letter with the statement that when
we can pay to one man the wages two
men command in England for doing q
ike amount of work in the same time,
and then can send the product of that
mans labor abroad to compete with
that Of the two men, although the lat
ter are backed by unlimited capital
other markets where the pressure is
not so direct" Not only that 1t should
encourage timid souls to be asking
what all this clamor means that is
raised about the need and benefcenca
of protection. If all our leading lines
are doing what these steel and iron in
dustries are doing and have been doing
for some years, making their wares.
paying the freight on them to foreign
markets and there successfully meet
ing the competition of similar products.
why should this country be continual
ly subjected to the dislocation of its
Industries by this incessant contest
about the tariff? Why should we now
be adjusting our trade to the terms Of
new act that, as the New York Trib
une admits makes so radical change
in many departments of business 2"
Why should industry be paralyzed first
by apprehensions of a law that reduces
taxation, and then by those of another
one that raises it?
Surely, it is not because these indus
tries need protection against foreign
competition in their own markets. How
can the foreigner, with the differentials
Of distance, freights, insurance and
commissions, compete here when he
cannot Withstand the competition of
our manufacturers in his own market
with all those differentials handicap
ping them? What possible demonstra-
ton can be more conclusive that our
manufacturers can compete on their
own soil than that they are competing
on foreign soil? Why, then, did con-
gress raise the 80 per cent ad valorem
tax on imports Of rails to 7-2O cent a
pound specific? Clearly it was not
needed for protection. Is there another
steel-rail pool in contemplation and
must it have the import price elevated
so as to permit it to recoup contribu
tons to last falls campaign fund from
the domestic purchasers? 1t does NOT
need the rise in rates, or even the Cor
man rates, for revenue, for the duties
on imports of rails for two years were
less than $1,000, and they were made
before the pool collapsed And it is not