New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-07-07
WORE TROTBLE IN THE WORLD.

A most deplorable-if reinstatement aI-
pears I'm a recent report Of the British Consul
m Philadelphia on the subject Of tinplate. In
the State of PENNSYLVANIA, he says, the manu-
facture of tinplate has become "A leading indus
try. Before the Mckinley tariff there were in
the whole country only some half dozen small
and languishng concerns engaged in That lndus-
try. Now there are 175 blackpate mills. or
these sixty-four are IN Pennsylvania. ana with
two exceptions are all no more than Ave years
old. Improved machinery is used in them. ana
a general advance has been made in the proc
esses Of manufacture. 1T is now believed,
says the consul. that with proper fostering the
time is not far distant when the United States
will produce all the tinplatc required for her
consumption" Pennsylvania alone Is pre-
pared to turn ont this year no less than 100000
900 pounds And at the same time more than
half the mills in South Wales are closed.
That is little short Of scandalous. Is 1t not
written in the law and the prophets of Golden
ism that no industry can be created or fostered
by protective tariffs? Has 1t not been demon
siratcd a thousand times, by metallnrglc expert
ments. tariff reform pamphlets and quotations
from the Rig Veda, that tinplate cannot be
manufactured in this country? Is 1t not evident
that all these 17j mills are fakes and that
all their alleged output Is smuggled In from
England to deceive the taX-ridden American
public? Have re not heard ten thousand cha
lenges TO the whole land to produce single lot
of American tinplate in marketable quantity!
And yet this British consul has the efrontery
TO make such report as that. II IL Is not
enough to strlin international relations between
the Akhoond Of Swat and the Great Horn Spoon
we should like to know what would be. Our
private impression Is that this perfdlous consul
has been bought up by some Of the protected
monOpolies.
Nor is that all Here Is a San Francisco cor
respondent of "The Iron Age" writing about
the fruit and salmon canning trade of the Pa
ciiic Coast. The market for such goods IN Great
Britain and Australasia Is extending day by
day OF course the trade ought to be hand
capped-ndeed. utterly runed-by the tariff on
tin. But it isn't. The supply of American tim
plate is increasing. and the price Of it Is de-
creaslng. The American Industry Is rapidly be-
coming large enough TO supply the demand.
while as to price. tinplate was never as cheap
on the coast before as it is now Just think
Of IL. tariff on an article that Is exported
must destroy the expor. trade, Any Free
Trader can prove that beyond doubt. Yet
with tariff on tnplate for five years past the
export trade in canned goods put up in Amer-
can tin cans has not been destroyed 1t Is on
the contrary, steadily increasing. The tariff Is
a tax which adds just so much to the cost OF the
article TO tho consumer. That Is the funda-
mental axiom of Cobdenism. Yet. with heavy
tariff on it, tlnplate Is cheaper than ever before.
If anybody wants a tangible. concrete ex-
ample Of pure cussedness." there it is. With
such conditions confronting him, is 1t any Won
der that the average man loses all faith in hui
man nature, and finds his confidence in the
eternal vertics going straight to the demniion
bOw-wOws?