The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-27


 
 | the low prices of commodities caused the Debs railroad strike from the Atlantic to the Pacific. and from Canada to Birming | ham, when miles of railroad cars were blazing in the Chicago yards and the dis turbances were suppressed by United States troops called out by President Cleveland and when bayonets of the Ala bama National Guard glittered even in the l Union station of Birmingham The same conditions forced reduction of the coal mining rate in this district from 4o cents | to 3712 cents, Pratt mines basis (which l has since under republican tariff risen to 55 cents). This reduction caused the distressing strike of coal miners, lasting four months and attended by violence which caused Governor Jones to call out
 the militia to preserve the public peace. l The conditions during this period of low | tariff were so acute in this district that | the largest corporation here. on one oc- casion. sold 300 tons of No. foundry at s6.2o spot cash to provide mining pay | roll which was then three weeks overdue.
 A wholesale grocery firm in Birmingham, afraid of bread riots, turned over it's stock
 of goods to the Tennessee company, re- l ceiving in exchange pig iron and bonds, and it became necessary for the company with which l was then employed to build | a commissary store at one of it's prin | cipal places of business to supply the hum | ger of our worlxmen when the local mer- chants had neither money nor credit with which to purchase food. l submit that after four years Of such experience, which was corrected after the election of Mir. Mckinley to the presidency, by tariff bill which ushered in the most prosperous period in the history of America, the
 country has had an adequate experience of low tariff and did not need to try the l experiment again of the Underwood bill, which is still more drastic. And under which the workmen of my present com pany employed in the bar mill were, even before the war broke out. reduced to working three to five days per month on single turn, instead of working full time | the month through double turn, as they were doing until that time; the reason being that German and Belgian bars were actually delivered in New Orleans $ per | ton less money than we could make them and lay them down there.
 l Is it necessary for each generation to gain experience through trial and suffer- 1 ing of this country? Can we not draw i lessons from the past which will lead
 to prosperity in our district?
 Gulf States Steel's Furnaces
 1 My friend, Forney Johnston, even though he were chairman of MT. under-
 woods committee, shows exactly the amount of transformation, or lack of ex- | apparent in the preparation of that cele-
 brated bill, as the Gulf States Steel com pany has only,pne blast furnace, and it is obvious that we are not running one more l than we have ever done before pre-
 sume that he intended to refer to our open hearth furnaces, where we usually run three, and, as one will require to | go out for repairs within the next 90 days we have started fourth ahead of time. Within 30 days will be back to ! the usual number of three. On such small | items is it fair to attempt to argue for | the success of great national policy? leave this to those unprejudiced per sons who are willing to know the truth and be governed by it.
 But MT Johnston says that should be congratulated on the success of our com pany under democratic regime. when | it's two predecessors had failed. My an swer is that our two predecessors were operating under an excessively heavy load of bonded debt, and handling properties | In three different states, some of which, l in my opinion were not desirable or eco-
 nomical and could not. I think, have been made successful under any ordinary trade l conditions. either high tariff or low tariff l When the Gulf States Steel company was | formed, therefore, the properties in Ten- nessee and Georgia were relinquished. | and only those parts of the property in | Alabama were purchased which were 1 deemed desirable by the management. These under a modest capitalization, free from bonded debt, are being operated suc- cessfully, and I trust will prove a factor 1 in that building ND of the state of Ala bama which we all, of whatever party, earnestly ana periodically desire. Again, submit that Arr. Johnston's argument is entirely out of place. for an overcapi- talized company would fail under any condition, and I will say that if they had been attempting to operate under the present tariff, which has brought down the prices of iron and steel to the lowest points known within 15 v-urs they would have failed much more quickly than they did. There have been many good democrats in the past who have been protectionists: Sam Randall always had following. and Inc one attempted to read him out of the party, and no man was ever more ridi- culed for a truthful utterance than Gen eral Hancock when he said that the tariff was a local issue. The manufacturers Of New England who became. wealthy under protection are now. many of them, in favor of free trade. that they may obtain free materials whilst. on the other hand, in .tlie south a large measure of protec- tion sentiment has developed This is nat ural when we see Alabama rails shut out from Canada by duty of q per ton, whilst Canadian rails come into the United States free of duty: when free lumber coming in from British Columbia has caused the closing down of hundreds of lumber and shingle mills in Washington and Oregon and when many thousands
 of tons of Nova scotian pig iron are de- livered free of duty to the pipe foun- dries of Philadelphia. who would other- wise have drawn their supplies from the
 Birmineham district giving emplo- ment | to hundreds of men at the blast furnaces l sary reductions in wages which followed l try to such acute distress that the neces-