The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-11
How Fortunes of the Carnegie and
 schwab Type Are Made.
New York Herald

@NOW 4OTh f1SrdlQ.
 fronn ne Iowa .ioi idea of removing the tariff rom all articles that are produced cheap CT here than abroad is liable to receive a new stimulus from the revelations print 1 e1 on another page about the relative cost ot ron ana steel here and in England
 MT ScnWab, who has just retired from the presidency of the United States Steel corporation, should be good authority on thls subject. The figures are extracted rom a letter written by him four years capital to take over the great plants unon option. -''U 0o'u "ii ,.II, In view of the duty then and still ex- esting to read Mir Schwab's statement that this basic commodity coud moi be produced in England for less than S11 50 ra " son; h. even even allowing no profit on the esting to learn that the lowest price at which the English could produce steel rails was $l9, whereas they could be turn eH ons or the Carnegie works for less man $l2. Consequently, as Mir. Schwab pointed out, rails could be shipped from Ihls country to undersell the British pro profit. "tsAi oA
 And yet we impose a duty of ss ton on rails. What is its purpose? Plainly to renee in the home market and enable the domestic manufacturers to exact ex M .oTtionate prices from American consum- = oNCAa8e pflCS TOT the year lSgQ in which this interesting letter was wifi. ten. was frraction above the present level Of $2S a ton. When it is remembered 1nat mat nearly 100000 tons of railway bars were Mere made in this country last year and that the production of pig iron exceeded I.Oo0,OOO tons, some idea may be obtained or the tax levied by the iron and steel con con pines upon the people under the tsr tsrin. There is no need to wonder at the accumulation of the colossal fortunes tnat nave set the world agape, for. as MT, SchWab remarks in the letter to MT, rrick, What is true of rails Is equally lree or all other steel products
 As result of the lower cost of produc- tion nere MT Schwab assured his corre- spondent that We are going to control the steel business of the world" Yet we ain mlalntaln tariff equal to 75 per cent on raiIs and corresponding duty upon all otner products of iron and steel. Mean Whlie the beneflciaries of this system of puoiic taxation for private gain declare that mat President Havemeyer of the Sugar trust was wrong to assert that the taT:ff Is the mother of trusts. They insist that m Ieglslatfng on these giant combina- tlons Congress shall not touch the sacred tariH schedules designed ito protect the American workman against inc manner labor of Europe"-as anybody can see in view of the fact that the American work man turns out the commodities for less man three-fourths of what they cost to produce abroad!
 combinations with inflated capitalization nave been formed on the basis of arti- nclaI prices, to be exacted through the nnlonopoly which the tariff assures them Sy the exclusion of foreign products. MT. SchWabs information in relation to the Iron ana steel industry possesses an ex- actitude and authority that must inten- slly the demand of leading Republicans TOT TOT a revision of the tariff by it's friends" lest 1t be subjected to much more radical ana drastic revision by it's enemies