Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-09-25
CARNEGIE'S EVIDENCE.
Another Big Nail Driven In
Projections Coffin.
TRUTH COMES OUT IN ENGLAND.

| "Rettred" maEnRte Exposes the In
EQUITY of Our Outrageous Tariff on
Steel.
The publication q few weeks ago of
the History of the Carnegie Steel Com
pany," by j. S. Bridge, formerly private
| secretary of Andrew Carnegie, drove Il
big nail in the coffin of the protected
| steel trust. 1t contains a letter from
Mr.. c. NJ. Schwab to Mt. II. G. Frick
which states that the cost of making
| steel rails IN this country was less than
! So ton in 1899 and that their cost
in England was then $40 a ton. Steel
rails were then selling for $2S a ton
here and for $40 for export, the duty
of $7.S4 enabling the trust to make this
difference in price.
Andrew Carnegie drove another nail
in projections coffin on Sept. 1, when
he spoke in England at the conference
of the Iron and Steel institute. He then
recounted the wonderful growth of the
iron and steel industry, especially in
America, which now produces nearly
half the steel of the entire world. Dis
GUESSING the very low cost of producing
steel in the United States, he said:
There have been made and sold
without loss hundreds of thousands of
tons of four inch steel billets at three
pounds for a penny. To make that
three pounds of steel at least ten
pounds Of material were required
| three pounds of coke, mined and trans
| ported sixty miles to the works; one
and one-half pounds of lime, mined and
| transported $50 miles, and four and
one-half pounds of ironstone, mined at
Lake Superior and transported 900
miles to Pittsburg, being transferred
| twice-once from the cars into the
ship and again from the ship into the
railway cars. This was done during
the day of depression, when everything
was at the lowest"
Three pounds for a penny" means
S14.95 a ton. In 1897 billets sold for
S14 a ton for awhile. without loss
means with q reasonable profit, and
reasonable profit means 10 per cent to
20 per cent to such men as Mr.. Car
negie, whose mills made net profits of
$35. 100000 the year before they were
sold to the steel trust Henry Have
meyer, president of the sugar trust.
once said that he considered 10 per
cent a fair profit and that he would
not invest his money where he would
get less.
But observe that Mr.. Carnegie did
not claim that steel was ever made
and sold without loss" at "three pounds
for penny" in any other country than
America. He knows that it is made
cheaper here than anywhere else on
earth. In view of these facts. why is
there a duty on bilIets of from $672
to $1314 a ton? What purpose can it
serve except to protect the billion dol
lar steel trust and to enable 1t to
charge unreasonable prices for its
products? 1t compels the thousands
of manufacturers who consume steel
to buy of the big trust or to go out of
business. Is it any wonder that, as
R. G. Dun & Co. report, the manufac-
turing failures in August, 1903. amount
ed to $7,74S.6S5, against $2,762, $50 in
August, 1902, and that practically all
1902, was provided by a few large fail
ures in iron and machinery" Is it not
clear that the steel trust is driving
manufacturers out of business and that
II is killing them with the tariff club
put into its hands by a Republican
congress?
And If these outraged manufacturers
object to being pounded and, as they
did last winter, go before congress and
ask for liberal drawback duties on
steel, so that they can at least obtain
steel for their export trade as cheaply
as their foreign competitors, what hap
pens? The president of the steel trust
simply tells Mr.. Dalzell and Mr.. Payne
of the ways and means committee that
it does not approve of the Lowering
drawback bill, and that settles 1T.
When the steel trust says, ''Stand pat;
we want no change in tariff duties"
the Republican leaders in congress say,
Hands off the tariff" and the Bah
cockites and the Iowa ideaists sub
side.
The discipline of the Republican par
ty is admira bIe-to the trusts. who pay
campaign expenses and pocket the tar
If graft.
Over 10000 tons of steel biIlets. in
gots, etc, valued at over 100000,
were imported for the year ended
June 80, 1908. The duty on them was
about $3,6O0,000. These figures testify
to the death struggles of numerous
manufacturers trying to escape from
the grasp of the tariff protected steel
octopus. Will the present congress
come to the relief of the thousands of
surviving manufacturers. or will 1t, like
the last one, obey the dictates of the
steel trust and 'stand patF
There is little hope, for President
Roosevelt has decided to 'stand pat
this year and next. Some time PEI
haps. when ordinary manufacturers
are dead and when consumers are ble't
almost to death. he wiz think 1t advis-