The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-03

truck load of steel bars, or shapes or
angles, and pays the quoted mill price
of the steel, which is ostensibly the
same at all mills, in addition thereto
ne pays $3.50 per ton, which is the
freight on rolled steel from Pittsburgh
to Chicago. If the same thing hap
pens at Duluth. Mimi, where the
United States Steel Corporation has a
mill, the purchaser pays 1920 per
/ ton in addition to the mill price.
/ The applicants for a complaint
I charge that this practice discrimi-
mates unfairly against western and
[ southern industry. They point out
that the fabricator of rolled steel
products in the vicinity of Pittsburgh
is enabled, because, of the pittsburgh
Plus" practice, to sell his product in
the west or south in competition with
the western and southern manufac-
turers on exactly equal terms, because
the fact that the western and south
ern manufacturers must pay the I'M
earned freight from Pittsburgh makes
the cost of the product laid down at
the door of the western and southern
COEAoO NAAC sally AZ lAalNNI
er the product is manufactured in a
western town or in or near Pittsburgh
itself.
on the other hand, the western and
southern manufacturers complain
that when they desire to sell their
product in the east, they are COM
PEELED to pay two freights, the simag
I ina ierh az do
commission terms it, from Pittsburgh
to the western or southern plant, and
the actual earned freight, which the
railroads charge the western and
southern manufacturers for the deliv-
cry of their product at its eastern
point of destination. Thus, they claim
that the markets of the west and
south are open to Pittsburgh and the
east without let or hindrance, while
the eastern markets are firmly closed
to the western and southern manufac-
turers by reason of pittsburgh Plus"
Consumers in the west and south,
represented in the pending litigation
by the American Farm Bureau FEEDER
alton. the National Association of
L uLCIdoA4l6 Agents. IuIlGIOuS WGSl6Tu
and southern commercial bodies, as
we'll as several states and cities. also
claim that pittsburgh Plus" adds an
unjustifiable increase to the cost of
steel commodities, this ranging from
20 to 80 per cent of the milf price of
the steel. Western and southern
farmers also complain, not only be-
implements and machinery, nails, wire
and wire fencing, and other articles
used upon the farm or domestically in
which rolled steel plays an important
part, but also because of the restric-
ton of western and southern industry,
which, they say deprives them OF the
advantages of a wider home market
and conpels them to ship their sarrn
products to distant points to their eco
nomis disadvantage.
The legislatures of five states have
taken action in the controversy by
passing resolutions condemning the
pittsburgh Plus" practice and in
structing their attorneys general to in
tervene in the case. These states are
Illinois. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa
and Missouri. The Georgia senate has
passed similar resolution. -....
It is claimed that the amount of I'M
earned freight which the steel mills
annually pocket at the expense of the
western and southern manufacturers
and consumers. totals over$7 {, 200, 900.
1t is also claimed that manufactur-
ers and consumers of rolled steel
products on the Atlantic coast like
wise suffer from this practice, mas
much as they, too, are obliged to pay
pittsburgh Plus" Since there are
large steels mills in the vicinity of
Philadelphia, such as the Bethlehem
timore, such as the plant of sparrcw's
Point, it is claimed that the Atlantic
coast is deprived of the economic ad-
vantage of the proximity of these
mills,
The steel mills deny that Pittsburgh
is a higher cost point of production
than Gary or Birmingham, a1tho thus
far they have not offered figures in
support of their denial. The ascer-
tainment of relative manufacturing
costs is part of the present inquiry
The mills contend. however, that the
cost of manufacture is not a material
element in the controversy They
claim that the Chicago district does
not produce sufficient steel to supply
! the demands of the west in normal
! times and that Pittsburgh, with its
greater" present supply must make up
the deficiency.