The Tin Duty

At the time of the enactment of the McKinley law a vast araount of "yap" was fired off upon a long suffering public by the apostles of protection as to the wonderful development of American tin mines and tin manufactures to follow the placing of a duty of four cents a pound on imported tin. The followers of McKinley wore tin badges and declared that under the operations of the tin duty this country would soon be wholly independent of the foreign product. In the light of developments since the high protective duty went into operation, the demagoguism of McKinley is made glaringly apparent. The imports of foreign tin indícate that the promised wonderful development of the American tin mines has not materialized to any appreciable extent. The following are the statistics according to the Chicago Record: "Our imports of tin in bars, blocks and pigs were 34,993,090 pounds in 1890, in 1891 the quantity increosed to 39, 787,620 pounds, and in 1892 the imports reached 48,908,652 pounds. Last year the amount was again increased, reaching 60,575,929 pounds, havingbeen nearly doubled since 1890. The McKinley law went into effect in 1890, but by special exception the duty on tin did not take effect until July, 1893. This was done to stimulate the owners of tin mines, if such there were, to develop their properties, and was fully as strong an incentive to mining as if the law had not postponed the operation of the schedule. A prospective duty of four cents a pound was not, however, inspiring enough to bring out tinfrom American mines. Almost every pound of our tin comes from Great Britain or its dependencies, and the fact remains that we are importing our tin from foreign mines, the domestic product failing to be of much consequence as compared with the demand." All this goes to show that the once bloviated American tin god is as flat on its face in the dust as Dagon óf the Philistines. The predictions of the McKinleyites should therefore be labeled and laid away with the prophecy of Congressman Allen on the wool question.