Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-10
THE HEARING NEAR ITS END Ways and Means Committee
 Hears Metal Men.
 WANT 'KINLEY RATES
Stsrtling Figures as to Idle Furnaces, Some of Which May Never Go in Blast, Except
 at Total Loss to Original Owners.

Washington, Jan. 9.-The hearing be- fore the ways and means committee to- day was devoted to iron and lead ores, metals and manufactures thereof
 Representative Draper, of Massachu- setts, on behalf of the manufacturers of machinery in New England, presented, without comment, their request for a re- storation of the Mckinley rates of duty on their product.
 W. H. Alexander, of Omaha, Neb., sug gested the following modification of the present paragraph in the law relating to lead ores: "All ores of which lead is a component part shall be dutiable at the rate of three-quarters of one cent per pound on the lead contained therein"
 John D. Davis, of California, said there were immense bodies of galena ore in San Bernardo county, California await ing developments. The industry had been started under the Mckinley law, but had been forced to suspend under the present law. Thousands of tons of this ore had been taken from the mines and placed on the dumps ready for delivery and if protection was given, these mines would again be worked. He advocated duty of one cent per pound on lead ores.
 D. A. Jones, of New York, representing the St. Joseph (Mo) Smelling company, appealed for duty on lead ores which would preserve the industry in this coun- try.
 Representative Herman, of Oregon, ap- pealed for a duty of 10 cents per pound upon nickel in order to allow the devel- opment of our nickel mines. Up to 1891 it was thought. that there were no nickel mines in the United States of any value. Since then valuable mines had been dis covered in North Carolina, Washington, Nevada and Oregon. The nickel now used in the United States, especially in the manufacture of armor, was being inn ported from Canada. The ores here were very rich and could be produced 4 cents per pound cheaper than in Canada.
 The duty on pig iron under the present law was claimed by some to be a Suffi- cient protection, because very little for eign pig iron was now imported, and some few thousand tons out of the mill lions made had recently been exported.
 These two claims might be considered together, and answered by the simple statement that the market was at present abnormal.
 Foreign pig iron was abnormally high abroad and domestic pig iron abnormally low at home.
 William A. Ingram, of Philadelphia, in behalf of the Eastern Pig Iron associa- ton, asked for the restoration of the Mo Kiniey rates of duty on pig iron.
 In the Lehigh Valley and New Jersey districts, the Hudson river district, in- cluding the Lake Champlain plants, the
 
 Lebanon and the east Pennsylvania val leys the Susuuehanna- river district and the Juniatam river district, there were 104 furnace stacks, of these, twentytwo were running and eighty-two were idle.
 Some of these idle furnaces would never start again without re-organiza- tion, which means practically an ab- solute loss to the original stockholders and that the bondholders will have to take the properties and reorganize.
 The history of the Virginia and fhe West Virginia furnaces would tell the same story.
 As the present capacity Of the fur naces in the United States was largely in excess of the probable demands of the market for some years to come, there was no danger of the prices rising to an unreasonable limit by virtue of the restoration of the duty named in the Me- Kinley bill. The putting of idle furnaces in blast would, by competition, protect the consumers. They further asked for a revision of the duties on bar iron black sheets and tin plate and that cotton ties and fence wire be subjected to the same rates as other like materials. They ask ed this because it was for our interests that our customers, the makers of bar iron, black sheets, tin plate, fence wire and cotton ties should be protected. And further, because a duty depending on the tended to open the door to outrageous frauds on the revenue. They request the committee to adopt as a basis for the new tariff the so-called Mckinley act and not the so-called Wilson act
 J. c. Thropp, of Everett, Pa., thought the present duty on pig iron was ade- quate now, but if fair market and fair prices should prevail it would attract the foreign product and then the duty would not be sufficient. Competition would keep the prices here at normal figure and protect the consumer.
 w. c. Cronemeyer, of Pittsburg, a representative of the tin plate industry, asked for an increase of from Hc to 1bc on various grades and a new clause to cover plates below No. 32 wire gauge, which were now manufactured here and needed protection.
 The committee adjourned until Mon day, which will be the last day of the hearings. t. s sIiS1 2
 Various schedules, including sundries and the free list will be taken up.
 EVERGREEN.