The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-11-17

sheets; iron or steel anchors or forgings
of iron or steel, $22.6O per ton; railway
rails and bars, 1874; sheet iron and
steel, from $l5.6S to $27.SS per ton; if
galvanized or coated with zinc, $685. 2
per ton; if polished, 1854 more than if
not polished; tin plates or terno plates,
1880 per ton; steel ingots, blooms,
slabs, ETC., tapered or beveled bars, mill
shafting, stamped shapes, ETC., from
1912 per ton to $lO5.2s per ton, accord
ing to value; wire rods, untempered and
manufactured from $500 per ton to
$l6.S0 per ton; iron or steel wire of
the ordinary type, $44.SO per ton; barb
ed wire, $3.50.
Remember that our inquiry is, What
does it cost the domestic producer of
these things to deliver them in the do
nestle markets as compared with the
cost to the foreign producer of delivering
the same articles in our markets? |
assert without tinge of doubt, and
without the slightest fear of honest dis
pute, that at the present moment our
producers can pay the highest wages
known to the American school of COM
pensation, and deliver these commodi-
ties to our buyers at no greater cost
than will attend their delivery to our
buyers by the producers of any other
nation in the world. | further assert
| that what is true now of these commod
tiles has been true for more than five
years. To prove this assertion, [ will
confront the standpatter with the testi-
mony that now lies neglected in the ar
chives of congress, but will establish it
| by course of business dealing, the con-
clusiveness of which no intelligent man
can question.
'If the iron and steel manufacturer of
the United States can sell his products
in the markets of other countries, in
open competition with all the manufac-
turers of the earth, and if in so doing
he makes a fair profit upon his sales,
the man who still holds that our manu-
facturers need any considerable protec
tion in order to enable them to comrete
successfully in their own markets with
foreign producers has surrendered his
good sense in his idolarty at the shrine
of that miserable maxim filched from
the language of the great American
game. You will not, am sure, require
me to prove that if an American manu-
facturer makes his product to be sold
abroad and persistently sells it abroad,
he is making a fair profit from the
transaction, especially in view of Rea
son No. 5, recently published by the
American Economist against reciproc-
ity, which declares that we ought not to
enter into reciprocity treaties because
we are not now able to support the de-
mands of our own markets. Listen,
then, to the history which the iron and
steel manufacturers of the United
States have written for themselves.
"For the twelve months ending June
80, 1903, they exported and sold in the
open markets of the world iron and
steel products, not including iron ore, of
the value of $s6,642, 467; for the twelve
months ending June 80, 1904, Sill ,94S,-
$50; for the twelve months ending June
80, 1905, $l34,727 ,92l.
81 will be still more specific. They ex-
ported last year wire and wire nails, up
on which the duty is 1920 per ton, to
the value of $l,793,250; of pig iron, up
on which the duty is $500 per ton,
1926, 1913; of bar iron, upon which the
duy is $l3.4 per on, $l,lSO,9Ol; of rods,
upon which he duy is 1892 per ton;
So, O62 sol; of billets, ingots and blooms,
upon which the lowest duty is 1912 per
ton, $45l5,5S6; of iron and steel
sheets, upon which our lowest duty is
$3.50 per ton, $3,lO5, O2O; of tin plates
and terno plates, upon which the duty is
1880 per ton, $ssO,S60; of structural
iron and steel, upon which the duty is
$ll.2O per ton, 1892 ,23O; of wire, and
barbed and manufactured wire, upon
which the duty is from $44.SO to $3.50
per ton, $6,264,4lS; and lastly, steel
rails, upon which the duty is 1874 per
ton, $lO,2SS,346.
"Had l the time, it would be graft
| flying to pass through all the items
which make up the aggregate of $l34,-
| 1921 of exports of iron and steel in
their manufactured forms. | must,
however, desist What has been said of
these particular articles is true of sub
stantially all others. Do not under
stand me to speak of this evidence of
American enterprise with aught but the
sincerest pride. 1t thrills the patriotic
heart to dwell upon these victories of
American genius and enterprise, and it
is my earnest hope that our producers
will not only invade, but capture ev-
cry market along the highways of COM
1 L