Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-12-17
The Steel Trust.

There was a series of great battles
last year between the railroads and
the people, and the defeat of the peo-
pie was accomplished with horrible
slaughter. Some 5000 dead We're found
on the battle fields and also 76,2S6
MANNED and wounded. The interstate
commerce commission bulletin on rail-
road accidents during the year ending
June Both last gives this alarming list
of casualties, which are vastly mOre
than for the previous year Can
nothing be done to prevent this APP
palling loss of life and limb by the
railroads? Defective rails are said to
be responsible for much of the s'augh-
ter, and the steel trust in its anxiety
to make big profits is selling defective
steel rails and is, therefore, to blame
as much as the railroads which ac-
cept these defective rails.
The republican tariff which pro-
tects the steel trust, virtually offers a
premium on defective rails by pre-
venting competition. The tariff duty
on steel rails is 1854 per ton, and on
the small quantity imported last year,
which cost S23.53 per ton in the coun-
| try where manufactured, was equal to
an ad valorem tariff tax of 3344 per
cent. With the tariff tax added to
the cast, leaving out the freight and
other expenses of Importation, the
cost was S31.3S per ton on imported
rails At the same time the price the
steel trust charged was SIS per ton
at Pittsburg. The difference of steel
rails abroad and here represents the
extra tax the tariff protects the trust
in collecting over and above the good
round profit the trust would make
without the tariff protection. There
is no complaint that English and Bel
GUM steel rails are defective; and
the fact that comparatively no acct
dents from defective rails is attributed
to that cause ABROAD, shows the Grim
inal rapacity of the steel trust here
although President Roosevelt views
that corporation as a good trust -
and takes counsel of the steel trust
magnates, Gary, Frick and Carnegie.
That there is a bond of sympathy
an interlocking directory-between the
railroads and the steel trust leads to
the railroad managers paying the
trust price without murmur. If the
tariff tax was abolished on steel rails
there would be the incentive offered
I to the railroads of buying better rails
at much reduced price. Probably
not another ton of foreign rails would
Il
Ibe imported under free trade rails for
the trust would either have to i'm
prove the quality and reduce the price
of the rails it manufactures to meet
/ the foreign competition, or lose the
f, enormous rail business AS it is Off
cially recorded that the trust could
produce steel rails for S12 a ton. when
labor and raw material was perhaps
80 per cent less than now. it will be
seen that the present cost does not
exceed SIG, or may be, SIS a ton. The
present price is s2S ton. As some
people may urge that the price Of rails
hardly effects the price of travel or
goods-although in the end the People
pay the cost whatever it is-it NAV be
well to remember that all steel pro-
ducts are protected by the tariff and
the tariff tax on most steel products
greatly exceeds the 33 per cent on
rails and on some steel articles ex-
ceeds 80 per cent. And yet the re.