The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-08-11
DISPLAY OF IGNORANCE.


Terne and Metal World of Pittsburgh.
under date Of yesterday. is in reference
to a recent article In the register, Of
this city:
occasion was taken 10 our last issue
to expose some gross misStatements of
fact in regard to the tin plate industry
made by the Register % Wheeling. W.
Va. It was a question at that time
whether the statements had been
made through ignorance or through a
wIllful desire to misrepresent. From
the way in which the Register receives
the corrections it Is qyident that the
editor of the paper Is actuated by no
other purpose than to,decelve its read
ers and foist upon then a conglbmer-
alton Of lies and false reasoning, and
in order to attract sympathy he refers
TO Tin and Terne as the Pittsburgh or
gan of the trust" Let, 1t be distinctly
understood that this aper is not the
organ Of any trust. IN has been and
will continue to be ashampion Of the
tin plate industry and a protective tar
III. and the editor 81 3 the Register
knows very well, II heii1nows anything.
that the trust" had nothing to do
with the question OF whether the Nc
Klnley law or the Wilson law deserves
the credit Tor blame as he ought to put
~ of establishing the TIN plate indus
try in the United States, which alone
was the point at issue.
The Register cannotand does not de-
ny the correctness OF our argument
that the removal OF the duty of four
cents a pound on tin, which was in eff
feet for only fifteen manths, had prac-
tically nothing to do With the industry.
But apparently in the hope that its
readers are as ignorant, as its editor in
tin plate matters, 1t prints the follow
ing paragraph:
III our contemporary desired to be
fair, why did 1t not tell us how much Of
what is known by the general public as
tin plate was made In this country
prior TO the passage OF the Wilson
bill? The Jumping Of the production Of
tin and terne plate before the passage
of the Wilson bin is grossly misleading.
Unquestlonably hundreds Of millions of
pounds Of tin and terns plate was
made before the adoption of the tariff
Of 1894. BUT HOW MUCH OF 1T
WAS WHAT is KNOWN TO-DAY AS
TIN PLATE? Commercially NONE.
Terne plate. heavy roofing tin, or mere
ly sheet iron coated with a compost
ton Of zinc and lead, have been made
in this country ever since sheet iron It
self was first made. 1t is very DIFF
ferent product from that which is
known to the public as tin plate. Ev-
cry one connected with, or having a
knowledge of the tin plate industry
knows this. and none better, probably,
than the Pittsburgh organ of the trust.
The attempt to confuse the two pro-
ducts is a familiar trick"
To those who have the least connec-
ton with the tin plate trade the utter
absurdity Of the above lines is laugh
ably evident, but to others 1T may not
be so. We admit frankly we did not
refer to the fact that a large part of
the production under the Mckinley law
was terne plate, because we did not
need to strengthen our argument that
way. The classification of terne plate
under tin plate is no political subter-
fuge, 1t is common trade usage But
this terne plate. which We repeat we
are only too glad to admit constituted
the bulk of the production. was not
sheet iron coated with composition
of zinc and lead"
There is no such product in this or
any other country, and never was.
Terne plate is black plate coated with
tin and lead. The black plate is lden-
tically the same as is used in making
tin plate. But that is not the point.
The terne plate produced under the
Mckinley law actually contained con-
siderably more tin. on account Of the
heavy nature Of the alleged coating,
than ordinary tin plate, such as con-
stitutes the bulk of the production at
the present day. Ordinary tin plate
carries coating Of not over two and
one-half pounds of tin to the box;
heavy coated roofing plate carries
coating of thirty pounds to the box,
twenty of which are lead and ten tin
lust four times as much. In trying to
Get out of a very uncomfortable hole,
the editor Of the Register has multi
piled the strength of our argument four
times!
After paying its respects to our cor
rectIon Of a few of It's errors. the Reg
lister INDUCES In some rambling talk
about the tariff, based on the statement
that the tariff gives the trust" 50 n
box. AS there are one hundred pounds
in a box, and as the tariff is one and
one-haif cents a pound. or 81 SO a box
It seems that nothing but barefaced ly-
ing will suit the Wheeling style of Jour
nallsm. The tariff Is now thirty cents
n box higher than It was in the Wilson
law, and fifty cents box higher than
in the tariff law which was in force for
years before the Mckinley law. The
American tin plate Industry has by Its
competition reduced tho selling price OF
Welsh tin plate by several times fifty
cents box, and purchasers OF tin
plate in the United States would be
Just so much better on even II the price
Of American tin plate were advanced to