Press enter after choosing selection

The Tax On Tin Plate

The Tax On Tin Plate image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
May
Year
1891
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The persistent misrepresentation of the facts concerning the increased duty on tin plate, by the defenders of the McKinley bilí, has doubtless really deceived the credulous victims of the Protection superstition. They have been assured that the prices of tin plate have not gone up, and that the American manufacturers of the article are abundantly able to supply the demand. No republican newspaper office is complete now without a tin plate, alleged to be of American manufacture, in its window. Now the singular thing about all this is that there is not a word of truth in it, and that protectionist editors and writers dare utter these falsehoods in the face of the fact that every considerable user of tin plate knows that they are false. In the course of a recent business talk with Mr. C. B. Cooper, president of the National Sheet Roofing Company, the editor of The Standard asked Mr. Cooper how the change in the tariff had affected his business. The result of the conversation was the article printed elsewhere. These statements are not those of a politician defending ,a theory, but of a hard-working manufacturer who has to buy large quantities of tin. Although the increased tariff has not yet gone into effe5t, Mr. Cooper shows that the price of roofing tin has already gone up more than $i a box. He fnrther says that though roofing tin is made in this country, that he can find no one prepared to furnish it in sufficient quantities to keep even his own shop going, and that the only result thus far of this most senseless and wanton outrage has been to increase the cost of tin roofing to consumers. We have no doubt that the change may result in increasing the output of a few tin plate manufacturers, but they wiil sell their tin at about the price of the imported article, and the increased price will restrict consumption and probably throw out of work a greater number of men in the various industries using tin plate than will bring in from other countries to work in the tin plate factories. Thus our people will be taxed and inconvenienced without even accomplishing the pretended object of protectionists- that of putting more men to work. If there is an opening in this country for the manufacture of tin plate, the industry could have started without laying this additional burden on all consumers. As a matter of fact the most hopeful start in that direction had been made before the McKinley bill was framed. At a recent meeting of tin plate manufacturers in this city, D. M. Somers, of Somers Bros., Brooklyn, presided. Mr. Somers is described by the Brooklyn Eagle as a "Free Trade Democrat.'' He certainly did not talk like a protectionist. He said he did not approve of the McKinley bill, and that he had begun building his mili to make tin plate before that bill became a law. He knew that bill would help his enterprise, but he did not depend on it for success. He believed that his success would be a triumph of American ingenuity over other countries and not a matter of tariff rates. Here we have the matter in a nutshell. Mr. Somers believed that the time had had come for establishing this industry and he was willing to invest his own money in it, even if he were subjected to some temporary loss, in the bezinning, in selling at the prices that prevailed under the old law. He did not ask congress to put up prices Eor his benefit. Mr. Somers is an nonest man and a useful citizen, and not a tariff beggar. As a matter of fact, the thing that ie depended on, ashesaid, was "not a matter of tariff rates" at all. He indulges in no cant about his desire to benefit American labor, nor any other form of false pretence. He thinks he sees a chance to make money by going into this business, and he plainly told the assembled manufacturers that he expected when lis factory started inSeptemqerí'a'í? the work with one-half the labor, and that the advantagethusgained would enable him to meet all foreigncompetition. This is frank and manly. [f Mr. Somers' expectations are fulïlled he will be able to sell tin jlate at lower prices than those prevailing before the passage of the McKinley bill. That bill will enable him to obtain higher prices. We presume he will get them, but that will not be his fault, but the fault of the people whoelected Harrison and the Congress of Abominations, because two years ago they were credulous fools who believed whatever dishonest leaders told them. Many of them have learned better since. - New York Standard. The Russian Government appropriated last year $15,400,000 for educational purposes and $150,000,000 for the army - ten times as much for war as for

Article

Subjects
Tariffs
Old News
Ann Arbor Argus