The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-13

Tin, the cheapest and most vulgar Of met
als-added 70 the humor which the free
traders and the revenue reformers dlscoV-
cred IN the purpose that was behind that
tin-plate paragraph.
Mckinley, II was said, really proposes
that the United States make her own TIN
plate, and therefore puts duty upon the
imported article Ii Is too fufny TO be-
lieve. II is the climax OF the absurdity
which is in the protective principle. Nc
Kinley declares his nnai championship TO
be for tin plate 1t would be ridiculous
were It not Tor the fact that he proposes 10
make the American consumer pay tribute,
so that two OF three men may Try TO make
tin plate in the United States.
The campaign speakers and the free-trade
press patronized and coddled the tin-plate
tarim as the professional punsters do an old
joke. But the jest has had its day. No
longer will fun be poked at Mc<inley's tin
plate tarlf. 1t has vindicated itself and is
perhaps the best proof of the argument OF
the protectionists which any one of the
American manufacturing interests can offer.
1t is proof in which there is no theory or
dreaming. 1t is all hard fact.
MehInleys view and that of his party in
Congress was that were duty fairly meas
uring the difference in the price of labor in
Wales and the United States put upon tin
plate it would be possible to establish this
industry in this country, and ultimately to
market here all the tin plate the United
States needs If that were done a new in
dustry, employing millions of capital and
many thousand workmen, would be de-
veloped. The money paid for tin plate
would be kept in this country, and that di-
terlstic of nations really strong would be
increased.
We. do not rely upon American testimony
to show that precisely what Mckinley,
then chairman of the ways and means COM
mittee, and his party predicted has hap
pened. We can obtain full and frank adj
mission from Wales and from the manu-
facturers of tin plate there.
The annual meeting of the association,
which is composed of the manufacturers OF
tin plate in Wales, was held at Cardiff in
the first week of August and it was then
asserted by two of the speakers and en-
pHatically confirmed by Sir John Jenkins,
member of Parliament, that since the pas
sage of the Mckinley law six years ago
the United States had captured from
Wales the entire tin-plate market in this
country, excepting the oil-can manu-
facture-the cans in which kerosene oil is
transported
1t was said that in 1891 rin-plate manufac-
ture was practically unknown in the United
States, whereas in 1896 there are $50 mills
in America capable of supplying the entire
American demand, and that while Wales
exported to the United States in 1891 a lit
plate, it exported in 1896 only a trifie over
one hundred thousand tons, most of this
being oil cans.
In other words, the despised and ridi-
culed tin-plate protection has done its per-
feet work 1t has made it possible for the
United States to make that product for its
own people. 1t has added TO the wealth
and employment of the people, and Il has
done these things without establishing a
monopoly, since home competition has conn.,
PEELED a reasonable price to be maintained.