Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-08-16
OUR COAL, IRON AND TIN
HOW THESE THREE GREAT INDUS
TRIES HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED.

Production in the United States. Under
| u Protective Tariff. Has Far Exceeded
That of Other Countries - Activity
| in Our Factories.
Three great industries-coal, iron and
tin plate-have made especial progress
under the development of our manu-.
featuring system, coal production be.
! ing Of itself a measure of the develop.
ment of manufacturing, since coal en-.
ters SO largely into that industry.
The coal production of the United
Kingdom during thirty years, during
all of which time that country has
| been under a low tariff, only increased
from 115,OO0,OOO tons to 226,0OO,0O0
tons, or little less than 100 per
cent. Germany, which adopted a pro.
| tective tariff about the middle of the
period under consideration, has in
| creased her coal output from 36,0O0,0 900
| tons to 144,0O0,0O0 tons-a growth Of
300 per cent. France, also a protec-
tion country, increased her output from
| 1867, CSC tons in 1868 to 80, 7S4 GA
tons in 1898, an increase of $50 per
cent. The United States, which has
been constantly under a protective
tariff law during that period with the
exception of three years., increased
her output from 31,64e,960 tons in 1868
to 25S, ,539, $50 tons in 1S99-an increase
of over 700 per cent. 1t must be re-
membered. in addition to this, that the
United States has consumed in her
factories, on her railways, and among
her people practically all of this enor-
nous increase, our exports Of coal
averaging less than three per cent. of
our total production, while Great Brit
ain has been for years q large eX.
porter of coal.
Our production in 1894, the year in
which the free trade tariff was en-
acted, fell to 170,000,O0O tons, as
against 1S2.000,O00 in the preceding
year, and the value of the product fell
from $20S. 100000 in 1893 to $1S6,OOO,-
600 in 1894 loss in a single year of
So. 100000 in this one article in which
labor forms SO important part of it's
value.
In 1891. under protection and the ac-
tivity of the great industries of the
country, the average number of days
in which the men in the coal mines of
the United State: were employed was
232. In 1893, the year in which a low
tariff President and Congress came
into power, the number of days in
which the miners were employed
dropped to POI and in 1894 dropped
again to lis: while in 1897. the last
90 I, n,;rf 81 L..
was but 179, reduction of twenty per
cent. in the time in which they were
employed rs compared with 1891. The
figures for 1898 show a marked in
crease in the number of days employed
and an increase of $4,000 men, as COM
pared with 1898; while it is apparent
that the figures for 1899 will, when
crease, since the product in 1899 was
30,000.000 tons greater than in 1898,
and SS,000,0o0 greater than in 1894, an
increase of near twenty per cent. in
production and twenty-five per cent.
in value of the product.
Pig iron production in the United
States has increased from 1886, 191
tons in 1880 to 13,G2O, 7O3 tons in 1899,
which year placed the United States
at the head of the iron and steel pro-
ducing nations of the world. The pig
iron production of 1892 was 9,151 900
tons. In 1898, the year of the inaugu-
ration of Democracy and free trade,
it fell to 7,124,OOO tons; in 1894 to
6,,657 900 to =, and in 1896 was but
S,623,OOO tons. The year 1897, n
which protection was again adopted,
showed an incre..se to 9,652, $50 tons.
and In 1899 an increase to 13,G20, 703
tons. Thus the fall from the last year
of President Harrison to 1894, the year
in which the Democratic tariff was
enacted, was 2,499,622 tons. or twen-
ty-seven per cent, while the increase
of 1899 over 1896, the last full year
under the Democratic tariff, was 4,997,-
$40 TOES, or fifty-seven per cent.
The average annual price of steel
rails during the period of protection,
from 1880 to 1898, fell from S67.5O in
1880. to $2S.12 in 1893. In 1894, the
year in which the low tariff was adopt
ed, there was a fall Of 81 per ton, but
the price returned to $2S in 1896, drop
ping to S1S.75 in 1897, the year ::
which the protective tariff was again
adopted, $17.62 in 1898, and returned
in 1899 to S2S.12, the figure at which
it stood in 1898 and 1896.
Under this long period of protection
and the development of the manufact-
uring industries which accompanied
it, the imports of iron and steel fell
from $71,2GG.699 to $12, 100000, and
the manufacturers, besides supplying
the enormous addition to the home
market, which this reduced importa-
tion implies, also increased their ex-
portation of iron and steel manufact-
ures from $14.716.524 in 1880 to S93,-
116,031 in 1899. In the year 1900 the
total will amount to $12O,000,OOO, or
| more than eight times that Of 1850.
Result OF Protection.
Democrats used to say that Europe
would not buy American goods if