Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-04-18
A PHILANTHROPY POLICY.


A most ph~ilanthropic policy il thia
Of ours-this taxing ourselves for the
benefit of the foreigner. a time was
once when the ph~ilanthropic charac-
ter of this policy could not be dem
onstrated, but that time is long since
past. Example after example can now
be marshaled - prove our unselfsh
interest in the poor foreigner who
viii consent to use our goods To IL
l~ustrate this, we viii take the iron
industry. We take this only because
there is a movement o foot among
the more liberal republicans to open
it up to foreign competition because
ii is in a trust. A wellknown con-
tractor of New York, Charles 1huslen
by NAME, obtained a contract from
the Russian government to furnish
steel rails for a portion OF the great
Trans-Siberian railroad. He sought
prices from the Federal Steel COM
pany, which gave him S35 per ton.
with freight charges to be added.
This price, so far as Mr.. Thullen was
concerned. was prohibitive. He went
to the Carnegie Steel company. bat
could not get the price shaved In
despair he went to England and sub
let his contract to an English firm
That firm sent to the United States
for prices and obtained the phenom-
enal figures of S24 per tor delivered in
Russia. The deal was closed and the
rails sold by the English firm to Mr.
Thullen at SIS per ton delivered in
Russia. Mr.. Thullen was thus en-
abled to go on with his contract after
being compelled to pay a British firm
a bonus of 81 per ton because he was
SO unfortunate as to be an American
citizen
The question suggests itself to
many ordinary minds, how can these
steel companies sell to a foreigner
steel rails 81 cheaper than to an
American and deliver them in Russia
to boot? There must he something
rotten in the state of Denmark"
when the home market is taxed to
such an extent in order hat the for
eigner may buy at his own price. Or,
is it philanthropy? We re, however,
not alone in this work of relieving the
foreigner. Germany, which has adopt
ed the American idea of tariff, is en-
gagged to a great extent in the same
charitable business.
Herr Krupp and Baron o Stumm
have, under the German tariff laws, a
monopoly of the armor plate indus
try. They hold up that government
for $50 per ton, which is 500 more
than the steel companies of the Unit
ed States are able to get out of Uncle
Samuel. And to make the hold-up
more apparent it appears that Herr
Krupp and Mr.. Harry receive a roy
atty of $3.50 per ton On the Amer
lean manufactured plate. This juicy
monopoly allows the German armor
plate trust to compete in the mar
kets of the world Not Jones, in
this case. but the German nation
paws the freight. On account of this
extortion the German reichstag pro-
poses either to remove the tariff or
construct government works, as the
difference would amount to the enor-
nous sum of $4,000. 900 in the con-
struction of the proposed new navy
of the empire.
In the face of many such demon
STATIONS of che workings of a tariff
law that is out of date, the great
majority of the republican states
men, are dead against the Babcoek
bill to remove the tariff from iron and
steel products. Wonderful, indeed,
are the workings of the human mind.
Paul Globe.