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Practical Tariff Talks
Tho tin plato industry has boon built up in
this country within Uio last two decades, and
today stands a monument to tho power of con
gress working through tho taTiff to make men
rich by law. Tin plates consist of sheets of
Ktool coated with tin. Most of tho mills
make thoir own sheets, of all sizes, and do their
own dipping or coating. Tho major part of tho
business in this country is controlled by tho
United States Btool Corporation. In addition,
thoro are twolvo so-called independent plants.
Theso have an organization of their own for
mutual protection, but tlioy conduct their buBi
noss with a very hoalthy rogard for tho prices
chargod by tho stool trust, sinco if they seek
to compote in any offoctlvo form they will find
tho trust moving toward their elimination. Aa
long as thoy behave in tho matter of prices, the
trust has no objection to thoir doing business.
Tho Payno-Aldrich tariff law carries a ten per
cent docroaso in tho tariff on tin plates. This
camo about purely and simply bocausd tho manu
facturers camo before congresB, as represented
by its committees, admittod that thoy wore mak
ing money and recognizing that there was a
demand for a tariff revision downwards they
consented to cutting tho rate from one and
one-half conts a pound to one and one-fifth cents.
Tho old porcontago was forty-seven, but now
tho protection carried is tho modest one of
thirty-seven. This 1b ample, representing moro
than tho difference between labor cost hero and
abroad. Away back in 1871 thoro was a tariff
of two and one-half cents a pound, and two mills
wero started. A decision of tho treasury depart
ment deprived tho manufacturers of the protec
tion thoy thought thoy wero getting, and they
quit.
Tho tariff of 1883 carried a duty of one cent
ft pound, but only ono mill attempted tho busi
ness of manufacture. McKinley came along with
his tariff bill in 1890, and placed tho duty at
two and two-tonths cents. This allowed such a
wldo margin of profit that a number of mills
wero started. When tho Wilson bill cut tho
rate to ono and two-tenths cents a pound, there
was a loud protest, but tho mills kept on. In
1897 thoy wore well satisfied when Dingloy
raised tho rate to one and fivo-tenths cents a
pound. Under this rate the manufacture of tin
plato has expandod and a number of fortunes
were made at it, oven before the steel trust
camo along and bought up most of tho plants.
When tho McKinley bill was passed the Impor
tation into tho United States was about 300,
000 tons a year. Sinco then the total consump
tion of tho country has doubled, but only about
ten per cent of the 600,000 tons comes from
abroad. The remainder is furnished by the
American manufacturers. Half of this total is
made by ono corporation, the United States Steel
Company, and the other half by tho dozen independents.
A duty of a cent and a half or of a cent and
a fifth doesn't seem very much, but when it is
also calculated that there are 2,000 pounds in
a ton and that a ton costs about $7, It will be
plain that tho per ton duty is considerable
$3 under the old law, ?2.40 under the presont
ono. There was some testimony introduced to
show that the difference in wage cost between
the United States and Wales was $5.28 a ton,
but theso seem rather apocryphal, in view of the
fact that the average price of tin plate in this
country has been about $2 a ton less than the
total cost as figured by the expert in question
while tho foreign made tin has been laid down
in New York for a dollar less than he gave
as tho total cost of manufacturing.
The United States has but ono large competi
tor in tho tin plato making Industry. That is
Wales. Germany ha a few mills, but her out
put is limited Thoy form no part of competi
tion in the industry, say tho American manu
facturers. It was claimed with considerable
pride before the ways and means committee of
tho houBo that the American made tin is the
best in the world. The workers are well paid
the manufacturers prosperous and the price was
?71I f m' T,hG rGdution made was
so slight that it has made no difference in tho
importations and tho price is but slightly under
what It was five years ago, and the flotations
of the last two years show that it was unaffected
by tho reduction. It ia worth recalling, too.
The Commons
that this reduction was made voluntarily by the
manufacturers, and that thoy and not the com
mittee or congress fixed what tho now rate ought
to be. Which seemed to bo quito a popular
way of making schedules in 1909.
OWEN IS WILLING TO LOAN TO PROGRES
SIVE REPUBLICANS
Tho following article appeared in the January
25 issue of tho Washington (D. C.) Times:
Tho Hon. Robert Latham Owen, A. M., LL.
D a senator from Oklahoma, has been frisked.
But a few short and fleeting days agone, tho
Hon. Owen was full of political doctrine and
dogma of which he was the undisputed proprie
tor. It bulged from his every pocket, it filled
his utterances from tho forum, and, safeguard
ed by tho potent espionage of his senatorial
frank, it moro or less cluttered up the United
States mails.
Tho Hon. Owen, bo it known, was the origina
tor of tho modern manifestation of that school
of political doctrine which has become known
as "tho people's rule." He was for the people
when nobody else knew they existed; at least,
when nobody else recognized them as an avail
able asset that could be cashed in at the cen
tral bank of political exchange.
He was head of "an advisory committee"
which long ago put forth literature proposing
that tho "leaders of democracy" organize them
selves into a great national movement for the
promulgation of certain reforms calculated to
restore to tho people tho right to run the coun
try. He wrote literature, circulated it, talked
it into tho Record so that it could be franked,
and got busy in a myriad of ways. He didn't
say much about his organized activities, but he
was busy all the time.
He talked to republicans and democrats alike
about the desirability of having the people take
a larger part in the government. He was for
real primaries, for popular election of senators,
for tho initiative, referendum, recall, short bal
lot and all thoso things, before anybody else
had thought of mentioning them in public.
But today, the Hon. Owen is a bankrupt. He
has been held up, and the entire scheme of
popular government has been taken off his
person.
The National Progressive Republican League
has done the business. It appropriated the
Owen program, put an insurgent label on it, and
flashed it forth to the country as the project of
the progressive wing of the republican party.
Senator Owen is wondering just what is left
for him. But he doesn't worry much.
"Haven't these progressive republicans stolen
all your thunder?" was asked of Senator Owen,
just after the new league had thundered forth
its declaration of intent to fix things. right.
"Perhaps they have," was the sorrowful re
ply, "but I am always willing to have anybody
steal tho text of the Ten Commandments from
me. They'll do him more good than the theft
can possibly do mo harm."
Senator Owen has been a people's rule ad
vocate since before the Hodges wero hung, who
ever they were and wherever that was. He made
speeches about it before Jonathan Bourne had
started propagating the Idea. And, oddly
enough, he doesn't claim that the democratic
party has a copyright on the idea. He isn't con
cerned because tho first formal organization to
take up the idea and make a big splash over it
is a republican. He is pleased half to death
because a new crowd has discovered his scheme
of making the peoplo tho real bosses of this
country.
The Owen program was put out many months
ago, and tho fact that it is now being pushed
forward by a group of republicans is regarded
by Senator Owen as merely an evidence that
fn0gram v0116 thAt co-nnot al1 to gather
up followers wherever it is talked about. He
opines that democrats and republicans are all
people and as hi game Is to get the people
nerSt?Vn the om. e is glad to get all
kinds of them active.
His scheme includes everything tho Procrpa
sive Republican League has put forth in its
platform, and still more. Owen would have
publicity of campaign contributions before elec
tion, and ho believes further that the public
treasury might well contribute the camnaicn
?,mfd?A Hnd P.ermlt free U8e of the maTls for
distribution of proper campaign literature. The
tl Zl eflttontaB candidates before nominat
ing them is in his project. In short, he doesn't
care a cent whether anybody does any bossing
at all- except the people. casing
,J0Zli J C01ir80' wltn a Prtsram of that kind
which ho has been circulating and talking about
for a few years back, he was a bit disconcerted
when he found that the republican progressives
had taken it all over. But he boro up bravely.
, "Everybody will be taking it up prettty soon,"
he declared. "I am glad to see republicans
coming in. It is the program that will win."
, Senator Owen's organization, including prom
inent democrats senators, governors, editors,
publicists all over the country will Boon elect
officers and put out a pronouncement which
will probably be a remarkable parallel to the'
National Progressive Republican League state
ment, and to tho declarations of Theodore Roose
velt in his late Outlook article. Democrats and
republicans, imbued with this people's rule idea,'
don't mind working together. They expect to
get tho country, and they are going to be very
busy between now and the national conventions
of next year.
The people's rule democrats are against. Har
mon; the people's rule republicans are against
Taft Washington Times.
FREE RAW MATERIALS
The following letter, from Congressman Sims,
of Tennessee,, will be interesting to Commoner
readers:
Editor Tonnessean and American: I am
glad to see that the Tennessean and Ameri
can is editorially calling attention to the
hardship the German export tax on potash is
working on the southern farmers who have to
buy fertilizers for their crops.
It is pointed out that tho American manu
facturer of fertilizers must add this German
export tax to the price he must ask for ferti
lizer; that the farmer must pay it, and in the
last analysis he must add it to his farm pro
ducts which is at last paid by the consumer of
these products. You are very properly urging
our government to take such steps as may be
necessary to have the German government re
mit this odious export tax.
The discussion of this subject makes it oppor
tune to call attention to the fact that tariff
taxes on the crude, raw materials used by the
American manufacturers are as certainly and
surely added to the price of the finished product,
and as certainly and surely paid by the ulti
mate consumer, as is this German export tax.
But this is not all, nor the worst of it. A
tariff tax on crude raw materials used by manu-.
facturers is not only added to the price of the
manufactured article to the extent that such
materials are imported, but tho amount of this
tariff tax is also added to the price of all
domestic raw materials used by the American
manufacturer on which no tariff has been col
lected, that it is, in fact, and in effect, a bonus
to the owner of such raw materials, a' statutory
profit not arising out of the natural laws of
trade and commerce, and is as certainly and
as surely paid by the ultimate consumer as Is
this German export tax on potash.
The amount of this German export tax pales
into significance as a burden upon the farmers
of our country, when compared with the bur
dens they bear in the way of increased prices
paid for manufactured goods due to this pro
tective tariff tax upon crude raw materials used
by manufacturers.
It is impossible to place the finished pro
ducts of the manufacturer on the free list, or
on the revenue-producing basis, as long as he
muBt pay protective tariff tax on the crude
raw materials he must use in his mill."
of I?6 very. nature of thlnss, a tariff tax
of any amount, however Bmall, on coal, iron
S mS rUgh 1?m.ber ad like Products, is
5?nL? a Protective and a compensatory
SfnS fl dutyu muBt be added t0 all articles
E2t5v??Mih materIals. and be paid ulti
thlJZii?1 cjmsumer- The freight rates
fa . pald on 0uch materials from any
to ttSS?7 Ugbt t0 be Prtection enough
S.fES PlCan miSe, and tlmber or against
any foreign competition.
Ar S e P?B of tbe Tennessean and
American will be trained upon this bed rock
S1 JS?11 r.tbe Pectionists, a tariff
f tn?A o Ahl maJerIals used in the manu
let Sn nLn enneCG8SLtIes of dailr life and Wer
nfaced Jf !!! fBuch, de raw materials are
factudedP tw Jf free liBt and a11 articles manu
factured therefrom placed upon the lowest
revenue producing basis. lowest
Nashville, Tenn. - T, w Bm&
2 The Amerlnnn WrTT, .., j -x,T X
SFtiiFS f natInal opo. will be
S Vu Commoner subscribers, with-
Zidditl05al ,cost wh0 new their sub-
friT..1118 tb0 month of March It
. vuid AAUL.H-.M in mantiAMA mt. -. . -.
a oA "U""LU"CU wuen wming. i
ffl(affiAlelloned when writing.
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