New-York tribune., 1900-04-28
PROTECTION TOO SUCCESSFUL.

The thick and ponderous official report of evi
dence taken by the Industrial Commission would
not ordinarily be taken for a jestboOk. But
there is nothing more funny in any jestbook
than the solemn inquiry propounded by distin-
guished Commissioners TO witness after Witness
HAS your industrial combination been caused
or is it kept alive by the tariff" To realize
fully the humor of such an inquiry one has to
note and compare about as many different an
swers as there were witnesses In the tinplate
business, for example, one answers fatty, No"
Another answers with engaging modesty that
he has not studied the subject enough to be
able to answer with positive knowledge. An
other replies in substance:
In the first place, yes because the tariff
created the tinplate industry in this country.
In the second place. yes because the tariff SO
rapidly develops home competition in the indus
try that manufacturers were forced to combine
in order to save themselves from bankruptcy.
In the third place, no, because the manufacture
had become so established before the combina-
ton formed that 1t was selling American
plates at 81 80 at NewYOrk, while foreign
plates much inferior in quality would cost 50 60
without any duty
In the fourth place. no. because nobody then
imagined that the steel billets from which the
plates made could within a year rise from
S15 to $50 making the bare cost of plates here
greater than the former cost of foreign plates
with duty. If foreign prices had not advanced
also the industry would have been in trouble, but
nobody expected or thought Of that.
In substance though not in words these were
answers which illustrated the absurdity of ask
ing what men knew and what they had in mind
and how much they foresaw when they agreed
to sell their plants at what seemed TO be a good
price. Beyond the obviously indisputabe fact
about which any question was laughably I'M
necessary, that the tariff had contributed power
fully TO establish and develop the industries
which formed combinations. the inquiry merely
invited a guess regarding the state of mind of
the men who formed them. Yet it served a
useful purpose. 1t called attention to the fact
that these very men who had been most
deeply engaged in the formation of Industrial
combinations were not considering the tariff as
All element in the question at ALL but were in
nearly every instance trying to regulate a home
competition which had become so severe as to
threaten the Solvency of a great many works
That the tariff had developed this home compe-
ttion and brought into existence and was in
fact expressly intended 10 secure cheapness for
home consumers through that process these men
were perfectly aware, and yet most of them
had grown TO regard home competition as an
evil which must be mitgated.
The Democratic plan of campaign this year if
the party can he said to have one. involves an
appeal 10 popular feeling against monopolies re-
sulting from consultations But there must
first be number of works to consolidate Some
force must first have brought the industry into
existence the tinplate manufacture was ere
ated by the duty imposed in the Mckinley
tariff. Then some force must have stimulated
the establishment of other works in great num-
Der, far and so fast that the power to satisfy
the entire domestic demand was reached and
exceeded before people were aware of it, Only
when that state of facts has been brought about
by continued defence Of domestic industries
against foreign competition can there arise the
possibility of restricting and the desire TO re
strict home competition by combinations The
Democratic plan of campaign therefore attacks
the Republican policy oil the ground that it has
been magnifcenty successful and so marvel
lously effective that nothing short of n new in
dustrial development, leading TO greater econo-
mics in production and distribution than have
ever been known can save many of the works
from destruction. This being admitted at last,
the question remains whether the combination