Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1901-07-11
TARIFF ON IRON AND STEEL.
Evils Which Would Follow Any Rash
Dealing with Protective System.


Evils Which wouId Follow Any Rash
Dealing with Protective System.
Partial reports of what President
Schwab, Of the United States Steel Cor
poration, said on the subject OF the Tariff,
In his examination before the Indus
trial Commission at Washington last
Saturday, have been widely published
in newspapers inimical to the policy
which has built up the industries of the
United States, and made this country
the most prosperous of all the countries
OF the world. The workingmen are
more interested in the maintenance of
the Republican Protective Tariff policy
than any other class. They are even
more interested in it than the class
whose capital is invested in American
industries, for this reason: When a
crash comes, such as that which fol-
lowed the success of the Free-Trade
propaganda of 1892, it cuts down the
income of capital invested in manufac-
lures, to be sure, yet people who own
property are only obliged to retrench
their expenditures; they are not re-
ingmen lose their employment, and in
many cases have nothing to fall back
upon. In countless instances their
families suffer Sometimes they be-
come tramps without even a shelter
over their heads at night These things
happened as a result of the approach
Of Free-Trade in the policy of the ma
tional administration which followed
the success of the Democratic party at
the polls IN 1892. These things have
followed whenever rude hands were
laid upon the American ark of Protec-
ton. These things would certainly fol
low any rash dealing at the present
time with the Protective Tariff system
which fences the American working
men from direct competition in his
home market with the underpaid labor
of foreign lands.
The report Of what Mr.. Schwab said
before the Industrial Commission
shows that Mr.. SchWab admitted that
American manufacturers often sell
their products in foreign markets at a
lower price than they obtain at home.
But it also shows that he declared a
large part Of this export trade is con-
Quoted at loss, and that he went on
to give the reason why shrewd Ameri-
can business men are willing under GER
tain conditions to do business at loss.
1t is done, he very clearly explained,
for the purpose Of keeping their works
running full all the time" This is
matter of more consequence to the
laboripg classes than to the men who
own the factories. Mr.. Schwab con-
tinued to the effect that those classes
of steel and iron manufactures In
which the cost of labor is not heavy
item, such as billets and rails, could
get along now without any Tariff, but
in the finer grades, such as wire, where
the cost Of labor is the heaviest item
of production, the present Tariff is
necessary In order to give labor it's ade-
quate reward" Mr.. Schwab also
called attention to the effect of foreign
Tariffs. "If we could only get into
Germany and France duty free" he
said,'' the worlds markets would be
ours" Germany, next to the United
States, has been moving upwards as an
exporter of manufactured products
faster than any other nation in the
world. She is doing this under Pro
tective Tariff policy. France, conspicu-
GUS for her economic sagacity, is also
Protective Tariff country.
American newspapers which are so
fictitious for the welfare of American
workingmen, will do well, If they quote
the testimony of Mr.. Schwab before the
Industrial Commission, to see that
these important points in his testimony
are not Observation-Disclosures "Sen-
tinel."