The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-28

ton upon all structural iron and steel,
and that we re-classifled it and made
a rate of $6 ton upon structural
iron and steel just as 1t comes from
the mills without being finished,
and of IS q ton upon the iron ana steel
that was partially finished. punched
and ready for riveting together, and
upon the structural steel that was
completely finished, polished and riv-
eted together, ready to be set in place,
for the construction of the great steel
buildings, all grade steel bridges upon
the railways, it was allowed to STAND
at the high rate of As per cent al
valorem.
There was a satisfactory reason for
this. 1t is not purchased for common
use and those who buy 1t are able TO
pay for 1t. and in the next place struc-
tural steel of that kind can be manu-
featured in this country as well and
for as low a price as in any country IN
the world, and the higher rate upon
1t secures to American labor the work
OF finishing it and putting it together.
Carnegie and Free Steel.
ct know th1t there are men who
say that the tariff could be entirely re-
moved from iron and steel. Andrew
Carnegie said it; the president of the
United States Steel corporation said 1t:
Mr.. Schwab of the Bethlehem steel
works said that he could produce in
his steel manufactures steel as cheap
ly as anybody in the world, and he
does It.
steel works in the country manufac-
turing all kinds of steel ware shelf.
hardware and goods of that kind
whose competitors are the mechanics
who work at cheap wages IN foreign
countries and If the tariff should be
taken off, this of necessity must either
reduce our standard of wages to the
standard of the foreigner or compel
our men to go out of business
"When asked MIR. Carnegie what
would become of these smaller manu-
facturers, his answer was that the in
dustry had been established long
enough now so that IL the nanufac-
turer was unable to keep up he could
quit.
ton of a man who had five hundred
millions of first mortgage bonds upon
the United States steel corporation
bearing 5 per cent interest, and who
knew that if the other iron mills of
en- out of business. the manufacturers
must drift at once to the United
States steel corporation and to the
Bethlehem steel works, which did not
need the tariff to protect them, and
they would have a monopoly of the
iron market of America We did not
intend to give three great corporations
monopoly.
1.-The third is the great works at
Birmingham, Ala, which have their
coal and iron so near together and are
so far inland that railroad freight
rates prevent any foreign competitor
from coming into the territory they
ca nsupply and undersell them. These
are the facts, showing the making of
this iron and steel schedule
What else would Judge Rees or
Mr. Bristow do with them? I want to
see the schedule written out and sign
ed by them. We wrote ours and sign
ed it and gave it to the country. I
want to see theirs before 1 consent
to IL.
About the Cotton Schedule.
1.-The cotton schedule is another
source of trouble to Mr.. Bristow and
the assertion is constantly made that
by re-classification we raised the
rates of duty upon cotton goods for
the common people, and that we did
this in the interest of the cotton mills
of Rhode Island and against the In
terests of the people of Kansas.
81 utterly deny every assertion of
this kind. The changes that we made
in the cotton schedule were nearly all
changes from ad valorem rates to
specific rates, and the specific rates
were made Gas nearly as they could be
computed to be) the same as the rates
under the Dingley law.
THE reason for it was that all ad
valorem rates are levied upon the
value of the goods in the market of
the county that they come from-not
upon the value of the goods in our
market-and in the cotton schedule,
more perhaps than any other. there
was a constant opportunity for under
valuation of goods, so that when they
came in at this under valuation there
was an opportunity to evade the duty
which they should pay and then adj
vance the price of them and still I'M
dersell our own manufacturers.
No Increase in Prices.
"The importers have been very loud
in their denunciations, as If there had
been an increase of rates, when the
truth is there has not been ar increase
of rates which will justify the in
crease of any price to any consumer
''The proprietor OF one of the larg-
est dry goods stores in the Fifth dis
trict, a leading merchant of Kansas,
said in a published interview yester-
day: Not a single piece of cotton
goods has been increased in price in
a year or since the tariff law went in
to effect. On prints, muslins, ETC., the
price is the same or lower. More of
it is made In America which is a good
thing for our farmers who have a
market for their products
'It may be that the importers now
having to pay the duty which they
ought to pay upon the true valuation
of their goods will advance prices to
their dealers, but the competition be-
tw cen the importers themselves and the
competition Of the importers with our
own manufacturers will prevent them
from advancing the prices on the coun-
ter of the retail dealer. and no man
who has yet complained of the change
from ad valorem rates to specific rates
las offered a schedule in place of it.
either upon the Democratic theory of
the tariff, or upon any other theory of
the tariff.
There is nothing in the bill to in
crease the price of common muslin, or