Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1909-03-29
TARIFF and WAGES
CONNECTION OF TARIFF and LABOR
IN STEEL INDUSTRY.

USyIC, DUN KSNOHutLSu Nuu'aOss
ities in the ManufaCture of Steel,
Differ as to Result of Lower Tar
~ Dusv ~ That Commodity,
Mr.. s'chwab is intimately versed
in the art of making steel. If he
had no personal interest his opinions
would command the highest respect.
But his interest in maintaining the
present duties on steel is perfectly
obvious, and his opinion that a re-
duction of duties must result in re-
duction of wages must be taken with
several grains of salt. Mr.. Carnegie
knows about as much of steel-mak-
ing as Mr.. Schwab. He may have
less technical knowledge, but he has
greater financial or economic know
ledge, and his interest in the main
tenance of present duties is very
slight and indirect. He is the bet
ter witness of the two. To do him
Justice, his opinions on the tariff
were not formed after he sold out
to the Steel Trust. When the Will
son bill was in preparation and
again after Mr.. Mckinley became
President he expressed very much
the same opinions that he has ut
tered several times within the last
few months.
The first reply to Mr.. Schwab is
that the wages of a large number of
steel workers have been reduced
without any lowering of the tariff.
The Dingley tariff did not avert the
panic of October, 1907, or the tardy
efforts to stimulate a sluggish de-
mand by cutting prices, after which
several steel concerns cut wages.
All this has happened under very
high protection.
The second reply is that the steel
interests in the interior enjoy a
considerable protection in the cost OF
transporting iron and steel from the
seascoast, while the steel concerns
on and near the coast, including Mr..
Schwab's, would receive a very con-
siderable concession under tho Payne
tariff in the removal of the duty on
ore and the reduction of $3.50 a
ton in the duty on pig. Mr.. Schwab's S
company controls ore mines in Cuba,
and his employees should benefit by
the lighter taxation of their raw ma
terial. The concerns near the coast
mcv concoivably receive q substan-
tial benefit from the contingent re-
moval of the duty of 67 cents ton
on bituminous COAL The coal op.
orators of the Pittsburg district
asked the Ways and Means Commit
tee to establish reciprocity in coal
with Canada, and the committee has
granted this. If Canada should re-
move the duty on our coal-and
the Grand Trunk railroad has just
closed contract for 100000 tons
of it-our duty would be removed by
the Payne bill, and it is not improb.
able that steel concerns on or near
the seaboard would find their fuel
bills reduced.
But in the third place, and most
important Of all, labor-saving ma.
chinery Is so extensively used In
our iron and steel furnaces and
mills that the labor cost has been
reduced below that in countries
where wages are lower than here,
but very many more men are en-
ployed to do a given piece of work
This important fact is shown by a
report of the United States Labor
Bureau issued fifteen or twenty
years ago, and more strikingly and
more in detail by review of the
iron industry of the Ninteenth Cen
tury written by Mr.. Carnegie for
nv >-0~- vo"L Fvori"" Post eight
years ago. In that article the great
iron master described the mechani.
cal substitutes for human labor used
in charging furnaces, in handling
materials, in loading cars and in all
operations of the industry. and
showed how small the amount OF
labor was in a ton of steel.
When the steel industry has be-
come demoralized under such pro
lection as that of the Dingley law
public and especially the workmer
employed by the steel companies. ma,
be a little skeptical about the al
legged disasters impending in some
reduction of duties. If the stee
makers can get orders enough fol
their products their need Of work
men will take care of the wages
problem. What the steel industry
now needs is customers, and not
protection.