Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-11-27

when an agreement, offensive and de-
| fensive, between cur own and foreign
| producers kept our product at home. A
| few more quotations will throw light
on this subject. On November 25, 1895,
after discussing the heavy imports OF
borate of lime (4,165.765 pounds} in
1S945, at an import price of 2 1-5 cents
per pound, the Oil, Paint and Drug Re-
porter said:
Another feature CT the situation is the
| exports of American borate of lime to
| England lately. Since October II, HISS
bags have been shipped at a valuation of
s22, s39 The average price per pound was
two cents.
On August 50, 1897. the Oil. Paint & Drug
Reporter Internationally illustrated the
difference between trusts in protected and
| unprotected countries.
1.-The Borax Union of Great Britain coll
lapsed some two months ago, due. posi-
bly,, to competition with borax from Amer
lean borate. The price is now e14 per
ton, or about three cents per pound, the
lowest price on record. -
The Society Lyonnaise, which controls
its own deposits of crude in Asia Minor,
and is protected on its refined in France,
is also doing well. but careful analysis
of the situation cannot but reveal the
commanding position occupied by the CAL
ifornla producers in the markets of the
world under the rev conditions, which
have been partially created by the new
tariff, and in great measure by the devel-
opment Of the Pacific SLOPE
In September, 1897, the British and Colo
NAL Druggist, Of England explained the
ability of the American producers to COM
pete in the markets of the world, by say
ing that to the natural advantages in the
matter of deposits of pure boraxi was
added an extremely heavy duty on borax
which practically bars foreign product
from entry into the States" 1t said:
eve can put this advantage in a start
ling way by saying that if the American
manufacturers obtained for their borax
sold at home the present price Of the ar
ticle in this country plus the duty in
American, they would be in position to
give away one and a half times as much
borax as they sold at home, and yet re-
ceive a return per pound on the whole
higher than the present English price per
pound"
This condition should prove more "start-
ling to Americans than to foreigners,
however. In 1898, 46,11S bags (about 1000
tons) of borax We're exported to England
cut of total production of about 1900
tons.
If this was exported to England at a
profit then our protective tariff simply
helped the trust to outrageous profits on
the borax sold here. If it was not sold
at a profit then the tariff made Americans
pay the trust two profits on the borax they
consumed, while Englishn1en paid no profit.
American warfare from behind protected
tariff walls made the borax industry I'M
profitable in unprotected countries, depre-
ciated the value of foreign plants and
mines and made it easy for our govern
ment-supDcrted trust to buy up its for
eign comp titors and to form a world
trust. This it has done. Our borax tariff
is, therefore, the real mother of this great
world trust
TRUST PRICES HERE AND IN
ENGLAND.
But observe now the difference between
trust prices in protected America and in
unprotected England. On October q, 1899,
the Chemist and Druggist, of England,
quoted refined borax at 16 shillings per
hundred weight. This is less than 31a
cents per pound as aginst IA cents in
New York. And yet the same company
supplies borax, from the same mines and
mills, to both markets. Could there be a
better Illustration than this of the OPP
pressive effects of tariff protected trusts?
1t may ask why. if it owns all of the
profitable mines of the world, does not
the trust put its prices as high in Europe
as in America? 1t is partly because it has
not got, and it is not easy to get, as COM
plete Control of the worlds borax mines
as those in California and Nevada and
partly because the trust has not, as yet,
had full opportunity to test its world mo-
nopoly. Some of the companies which it
took over were under contract to supply
raw material at certain prices for one, two
or three years. Until these contracts ex-
pire, refined borax will be likely to remain
low in England
BORAX IN THE SENATE.
When the Dingley bill was being dis
cussed in the Senate in 1897 a great calam-
ity howl went up from the California and
Nevada Senators about the depressed bor-
ak industry. Senator Perkins told the
Senate that there can be no trust and
no monopoly of the borax fields of Nevada
and California. When attempting to an
swer Senator Gray's inquiry as to why it
was that an industry which had been built
up on lower duties should, as time goes
on and the infant industry is established
still want higher duties. Senator Perkins
replied that 1T is simply the old story of
crushing an industry which has been es-
tablished. The mines are opened the wa
ter is pumped cut of them, roads have
been built 10 the mines and if they are
abandoned then the trusts again come in
and advance the price,
This absolute Misrepresentation Of facts
passed as wisdom in the Senate
When faced by the fact that the borax
industry had PISSED into the hands of a
British eorporation-the Pacific Borax and
Redwood Chemical Works, Limited-which
had been running six months and had, in
spite Of the low prices and depression
cleared II per cent on its capital-absolute
fabrication was resorted to and the West
ern Senators denied the existence of the
English corporation and Senator White.
who had turned protectionist and leggar
for the borax infant, read a telegram
from a gentleman in California =
for whom L am ready to vouch" saying
that "borax mines are owned by individ-
uais and companies, all American"
Senator Stewart helped to deceive the
there had been an attempt to make this
sale in Europe in good faith, but I think
the whole thing fell through, 1t was ore
of the bombastic prospectuses that the
English put out 1t must be an exaggera-