The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-05-18
UNNECESSARY RUBBER TARIFF"
Vote Cast For ANY Terif's. Vote For the
Trusts

To the Editor: "Steel rails are manu-
featured in Pennsylvania and Alabama
and delivered in Europe for 1850 ton
according to MIR. Schwab. head OF Tue
steel trust. These same rails are sou
in the United States for $26 and WI
ton But for the unnecessary roboer
tariff they would sell in the unlteu
States as cheaply as in Europe
If all materials entering into steel
iron and tin products were placed upon
tho free list the steel Trusts net earn
ings would fall short of one-half Oh
Sill 900, 900 per annum.
When President Schwab testified before
tho limited States Industrial Commission
he was asked if the $500, 100000 of bonds
did not cover the total tangible assets
of his corporation. He stated that their
60 600 acres of Connellsville coal lanos
conld not be bought for 100000 per acre
and that they controlled ~ per cent
(since reported to have been increased TO
90 per cent? of the iron ore deposiIs Vi
the Northwest, which at low Nalua
ton would exceed the total capitalization
of the Trust Adding it's 500, 100000 tons
of iron ore, at So per ton to It's coal IanuS
the value of these two raw maleFlal re-
sources would exceed five billion doliars'
Of course. there is not sufficient iron
and steel business in the country TO
Justify such a huge capitalization II
these coal and iron lands were assessor
for taxation at President SchWabs Valu-
alton, instead Of as wild lands, at less
than one tenth of one per cent, or that
valuation, it is probable that the Steel
Trust would be unable to report dlVl-
dends on anything but the $30O,OOO,OOO OF
bonds 1t would dispose of all surplus
coal and iron lands, and competition,
domestic. and foreign, would destroy It's
power for harm.
The News and Observers characterize
ton of the unnecessary robber tariff
is good All tariffs are robbery. Then
when is robbery necessary?
The following extract from a speech
delivered in Congress on January TO-,
! 1894, by Hon. Tom L. Johnson, now
mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, is pertinent.
THAT you can injure industry and
hurt labor by abolishing tariff taxes too
quickly and too completely, l deny. You
will injure monopoly and hurt trusts;
but you will stimulate industry and give
| labor relief. Take the business in
which | am interested. If you put steel
| rails on the free list, | intend to move,
you will not shut up mills; on the con-
trary you will open them, for the steel
rail pool can then no longer, out of the
! extra profits the tariff gives it, afford to
pay for keeping mills idle. There will
be greater activity and a greater de-
mand for labor in the making of rails
| And so with structural steel. But the
benefit will not end there. The men en-
! gagged in making steel rails and struc-
tural steel are bat a handful compared
with those engaged in laying rails and
erecting buildings and bridges and even
they are few. compared with the men
such erectons set at work. You will
lrsssn the profits of some of us steel
manufacturers, but you will stimulate
industry, give IDLE labor a chance fol
employment. and so tend to raise wages. -
So long as there is a tariff at all, there
will be interested persons seeking tariff
fayors, with what success our tariff his
tory shows. Experience thus proves
that every vote cast for any tariff at all
is a vote for the trusts.
A. FREELAND.
Mount Pleasant, Tenn, May u.