The Delta independent., 1908-05-15
FREE TRADE FALLACY
Several Statements That Should
Be Corrected.
SELLING CHEAPER ABROAD.
How It Profits the Worker-Facts and
Statistics Concerning Certain Ex-
ports as Well as Domestic Production
and Prices of Iron and Steel.

and Prices of Iron and Steel.
There lie before us on our table
three conspicuously false statements
aimed at our protective policy which
we would gladly believe were inspired
| only by ignorance If we had not long
ago learned that just such misrepre-
| sentations constitute the stock in trade
of Il large majority of our free trade
| writer's and teachers.
Falsehood No. 1.-The Orange Judd
| Farmer of Springfield. Mass. for Jan.
%. under the caption What the Tariff
Makes Possible" says editorially: "Ev-
cry little while there come TO our at
| tention evidences Of tariff protected
trusts selling goods cheaper abroad
than at home The United States Steel
corporation has sold to Welsh tin plate
makers 100000 tons of sheet and tin
plate bars SO or SO cheaper than the
price to manufacturers In the United
States. While the trust is charging
American tin plate makers $50 ton it
is delivering in Wales the same prod
uct at S2loO ton. The cost of trans
portation is about Si.10. so that the
actual price received at Pittsburg is
$3.50 against the $40 paid by Ameri-
| cans"
II the writer of the above statement
had taken the trouble TO inquire in the
proper quarter he would have learned
that the Indictment he had framed
against the so called trust embodied n
grave error. The sale of about 100000
tons OF sheet bars some time ago to
British sheet makers was made by the
United States Steel corporation at
prices netting 1t nj the mill after the
payment OF freight about SD per ton.
and a further quantity was afterward
sold at somewhat higher prices. The
difference between S1Tso, the net
price received by the makers according
to the Orange Judd Farmer and the
SD actually received Is exactly $40.
which Is. we presume, n matter Of no
consequence TO the Orange Judd
Farmer.
That prices OF our manufactured prod
ucts sold abroad are sometimes lower
than are charged 10 our own people Is
not denied. and the reasons for this
difference have been frankly and fully
given. one OF these reasons is the de-
sire to keep the mills running and the
men employed In periods Of depression
like the present, SO that the men can
earn wages for the support OF their
families.
Falschood No. 2.-The Public Ledger
of Philadelphia Is a newspaper of such
high character that lis readers would
not expect to find in Its editorial col
umns such a bald and flagrant misrep-
reseutation OF facts as appears In Its
leading editorial OF Jan. l6 under the
caption New England and the Tariff.
In the course of n general denunciation
OF the Dingiey tariff the editorial says,
Every one knows that the tariff on
steel exists for no other purpose than
to permit the trust to pay dividends on
its wntercd stock" The trust refer
red TO Is. of course. the United States
Steel corporation This trust" was
not In existence until several years
after the tariff on steel was made n
part OF the Dlngley tariff of 1897. The
corporation had, therefore. no more to
do with the fixing of the duties on
steel In that tariff than the writer OF
the Ictlgers editorial. But. waving
the Ledger's chronological blunder. 1t
Is still more at fault and TO blame in
saying that "the tariff on steel exists
for no other purpose than to permit the
trust TO pay dividends" etc, ms IL 1t
were the only manufacturer of iron
and steel In this country. Students Of
our economic history. one Of which the
writer in the Ledger pretends TO be,
know from authoritative information
which has been published from year to
year that the United States Steel cor
poration has many strong competitors,
like the Bethlehem Steel company, the
Pennsylvania Steel company, the Cam
bria Steel company. two large compa-
nies at Coatesvllle and others at Har-
risburg. Reading Lebanon, Pittsburg
and elsewhere In Pennsylvania. not
one OF which is In any manner under
the control OF the United States Steel
corporation. while there are many 9TH
er manufacturers of iron and steel In
other states. The corporation does not
| In some lines of iron and steel make 30
per cent Of the country's total produc-
tIon: In other lines II exceeds so per
cent; In no line has II the semblance OF
monopoly.
Falsehood No. 3.-The compiler Of
industrial Notes" In the London
Times for Jan. IL has been led
through ignorance of his subject into
the commission OF most ridiculous
error I'm the following paragraph,
which paragraph he thought OF so
much Importance that he placed II Mt
the top of column: Pig Iron Supply
In the United States. The Frankfort
Gazette Is Informed that German steel
works (probably the Stahlwcrksvcr-
band have concluded contract under
which the United States American
steel trust will deliver to them 100000
| tons of pig iron at SlT so (. o. b. Pitts