The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-22
IRON AND STEEL IN THE TARIFF

The Philadelphia Ledger has been in
men on the probable effect of the new
tariff bill on their business. The views
they express are very interesting in
deed, and are all against it. Thus
Major L. S. Brent of the Pennsylvania
Steel company said:
This bill does not affect the iron and
steel business. 1t raises the duty on
some of the manufactured products,
but what will the effect be. Take rail-
way fishplates and splicebars. Under
the Wilson tariff revenue, fishplates
have sold in this country for l cent a
pound. Probably they could be laid
down here from abroad at cents
pound. Now add one-half cent a
pound, which is about the duty. There
is no revenue in that. Ingots are raised
from three-t enths to seven-twentieths
of a cent per pound. These ingots
could probably be furnished in this
country for about SIS a ton. and it
would cost about so or $23 ton to lay
them down here from abroad without
the duty. l cannot figure any revenue
out of that.
There is nothing except ore that
would pay a particle of duty on the
iron schedule. We are selling tin plate
in Wales in large quantities; over
the duty on tin plate. The same with
wire nails; we are large exporters of
everything the duties have been raised
on. Where labor is a large factor OF
the completed work the foreigners
would have the advantage, but we beat
them all in mill work and skill. judge
the whole bill by the iron schedule. If
the other schedules are as badly con-
sidered it will not be successful meas
ure.
Mr.. Joseph Wharton of the Bethle-
hem Iron company had this to say:
In a general way I am disappointed
with this bill. Iron ore should have
been put on the free list. or the western
people will have the advantage of the
eastern manufacturers in every way.
They have the cheap Superior ores;
have possession of all the market in the
interior, and have that market pro-
tected by the inland freight against
foreign importers of every kind; while
the eastern manufacturers are handi-
capped by a heavier freight on Superior
ores and on their coke. There is no
inland freight to protect them and they
must pay 40 cents ton duty on ore
from other countries. With that eX-
ceptlOn the Dill as to iron ana steel is
satisfactory There are points on the
Pacific. Atlantic and gulf coasts where
we could not compete with foreign iron
and steel, but that business is not i'm
portant. Foreign manufacturers have
not been able to do US much harm for
some years. That time has gone by.
Mr. Stuart Wood of R. D. Wood G
Co. said:
The Dingley bill makes few changes
in the iron schedules and leaves most
of them as they were under the Wilson
tariff. One thing might have been i'm
rate of 30 cents a ton on
ore should have been thrown off. There
is at present no foreign competition.
The only competition with which iron
producers in eastern PENNSYLVANIA
have to contend is in the west, and
what they need is free ore The large
producers are dependent on lake ores
and on foreign ores, and the eastern
under the tariff is COM
PEELED to purchase lake ores and is put
in a disadvantageous position as COM
pared with the Pittsburg, Ohio or
Illinois manufacturers using the same
ores to at least 81 ton, or something
like 10 per cent on his finished product, |
or in competition with the Alabama !
furnaces, which use their own ores.
And all this from Pennsylvania iron