CHAPTER XV.

COBDEN CLUB-FREE TRADE--TARIFF REFORM-LAND TAX-AMERICAN FARMERS-THE IRISH VOTE-IRISH REPUBLICANS

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MINISTER EGAN-MONROE DOCTRINE.

HE newspapers and public speakers of the free trade and tariff reform party, who have been telling the farmers that if the tariff of 1890 (McKinley bill) is not repealed that England will not buy the farm produce of the American farmers, should read Lord Salisbury's speech on free trade. The following is from Lord Salisbury's speech May 18, 1892:

"We complain most of the United States, and it so happens that the United States mainly furnishes us with articles which are essential to the good of the people, and with raw material which is essential to our manufactures. We cannot exclude either without serious injury to ourselves. I am not prepared, in order to punish other countries, to inflict dangerous wounds on ourselves. We must confine ourselves to those matters wherein we will not suffer much whether importation continues or diminishes. While we cannot raise the price of food and raw material, there is an enormous mass of imports, such as wine, spirits, silks, gloves and laces, from countries besides the United States, which are mere luxuries, and of which a diminished consumption could be risked in order to secure access to the markets of our neighbors. I am bound to say that I think the free traders have gone too far.'

If Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson were now living they would surely say that the free traders and tariff reformers of the United States have gone too far in their opposition to the American tin plate industry of the United States, as well as their selfish, unwise and unpatriotic hostility to Mr. Blaine's reciprocity treaties. Lord Salisbury is the present first lord of the treasury and prime minister of England; that is to say, the present head of the British government. He is certainly the best authority in England on the question of food. He knows well that England must have food or famine, "bread or blood." American politicians certainly do not know more on the food question than the English themselves. The hungry man knows when he wants bread.

The Southern people made a deplorable mistake in following the leadership of the free traders, after the War of the Rebellion, for the main plank in the constitution of the Southern Confederate government was slavery and free trade. To maintain their principles the South fought the War of the Rebellion. On the surrender of the "Lost Cause," the South should have surrendered the cause of the war itself-slavery and free trade. They should allow the colored citizens to cast their ballots at elections and have them counted, even if they have to give them a division of the offices. They should now encourage both manufacturing and immigration. But the Bourbon Democracy came to the front,-Watterson, Carlisle, Morrison and Mills-who forced what they then called the "Kentucky Idea," or Cobden Club free trade, on the Democratic party both North and South. Not one Democrat in a thousand in the South, in 1884, knew that the Democratic rallying cry of "Cleveland and Reform!" meant Cleveland and the free trade principles of the Cobden Club of London, England. The great mass of the Democrats believed that "Cleveland and Reform!" meant only to turn out the Republicans and put in the Democrats. Henry George is a disciple of the free trade Cobden Club, established in London, April, 1848, by Cobden. The following are the princi

ples of the Cobden Club: "Removing taxation from articles of food, from houses, business places, etc., and putting it upon the value of land will relieve trade and commerce; and by depriving the land holder of the power he at present possesses and exercises." This is the foundation stone of Henry George's single tax scheme and the tariff heresy of Watterson, Carlisle, Morrison, Mills, Cleveland and other Cobden Club free trade tariff reformers. The abolishment of tariff duties would compel the Federal government to resort to a land tax, the same as in England, and take the taxes off personal property in towns and cities and load it upon the backs of the farmers. Farmers, Alliance men, what do you think now of the Cobden Club party in the United States? The Cobden Club Association recommends reading Henry George's latest work, the "Condition of Labour," etc. This is their indorsement of Henry George. Vide Cobden Club Almanac for 1892 and the Monthly Financial Reformer for 1892.

The Cobden Club Financial Reform Association in 1892 advocate "perfect freedom of trade," "a system of direct taxation," "completion of the work of Cobden-until the last chain laid upon human industry and skill be broken, and the last duty abolished." Henry George has the courage to advocate the single tax on land, but Watterson, Carlisle, Morrison, Mills and Cleveland are working in the dark until they get full control of the Federal government, then they will proclaim absolute free trade. The land tax will follow as a matter of course. They advocate what they call "tariff reform”—simply gradual free trade, and the ruin of American manufactures. The members of the Cobden Club are bolder on their side of the Atlantic; they are not, like their free trade brethren in the United States, afraid to publicly and boldly advocate their principles of free trade and land tax on the farmers. They say, "In the election we distributed over 2,000,000 leaflets." The leaflets of the Cobden Club have been used in the United States very freely. These leaflets are used in writing editorials by the leading free trade and "tariff reform" newspapers in the large cities, and rehashed by the country "tariff reform" papers, in order to influence voters to ruin- by unfriendly legislation-the manufacturers of the United States, especially the manufacturers of tin plate, as also to break down reciprocity. The Cobden Club has at its disposal plenty of money, which will appear from the following list of contributors:

As the British pound sterling is nearly equal in round numbers to five dollars of United States money, the reader will form some idea of the amount of British gold contributed to control the elections in the United States. It is one of the most audacious attempts to break down the manufacturers of the United States ever devised by the wit of man. We only give a few of the leading contributors. Oh! shades of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson! American citizens, beware of the baneful influence of foreign gold to control our general elections.

CHAPTER XVI.

AMERICAN TIN PLATE.

VOR several centuries before the Christian era the Phoenicians traded with the inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall for tin. The Scilly Isles, south of the Land's End, in England, was called by the Phoenicians Cassiterides or the Tin islands.

The English and Welsh, "time out of mind," obtained from the Phoenicians the art of manufacturing tin plate, which became to all other nations one of the "lost arts." The English and Welsh guarded the manufacture of tin plate with great mystery, so as to keep all other nations from manufacturing tin plate.

Even under the common law of England, the "Tin Miners" of Wales, Devonshire and Cornwall were protected as follows:

"The Stannary courts in Devonshire and Cornwall, for the administration of justice among the tinners therein, are also courts of record, but of the same private and exclusive nature. They are held before the lord warden and his substitutes, in virtue of a privilege granted to the workers in tin mines there, to sue and be sued only in their own courts, that they may not be drawn from their business, which is highly profitable to the public, by attending their law suits in other courts. The privilege of the tinners is confirmed by the Charter, 33 Edward I., and fully expounded by private statute, 50 Edward III., which has been explained by a public act, 16 Car. 1 C. 15.

Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. 3, p. 80.

By the protection of the tin plate industry England has had a monopoly of the tin plate trade of the world, and especially that of the United States.

In 1881 the total production of the tin ore in England and Wales was 8,600 tons. England and Wales, as late as 1881, produced twelve-thirteenths of the tin ore of the world. Recently tin ore has been found in the Dutch East India islands, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, California and the Black Hills and other countries, and doubtless it will be found within the mineral regions of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Virginia. From the abundant supply of coal, cheap skilled labor, enormous capital and shipping facilities, England can sell tin plate cheaper than any other country in the world and make a fair profit after paying a high tariff. She might have for an indefinite period a monopoly of the tin plate trade of the United States but for the provisions in the tariff laws of 1890, commonly called the "McKinley Bill," which encourages the home manufacture of tin plate. In a few years, with protection, the people of the United States will manufacture all the tin plate for home consumption, and export a large quantity of American tin plate to foreign nations. They will compete with England in the markets of the world as a great rival, as well as in iron and steel. This can be accomplished only by protection. For the past few years England has imported palm oil from Africa and tin ore from the Dutch East India straits and from Australia. The free traders, before and since the passage of the McKinley tariff act, in 1890, said "that the coating of iron or steel plates with tin was a thing beyond the powers of Americans." The American manufacturers have demonstrated their ability to make "bar steel, from which the black plates, thereafter to be tinned, are rolled."

There is no difference between the rolling of sheet iron and soft steel such as are used in making galvanized iron, stovepipe, black pans, etc., and the soft steel used for tin plates that could possibly operate to deter American manufacturers.

The only question is our ability to tin the plates-we already do nine-tenths of the work-the controversy is as to our ability to put on the finishing, coating the metal. Those who are opposed to the Americans manufacturing tin plate wish to abandon to foreign manufacturers $30,000,000 a year, the raw materials of which we produce ourselves or can buy as cheaply as they, and the process of which we already perform upon the final stage.

A tin plate factory consists of a number of pots containing water, sulphuric acid, oil and metal. The following is the manner of manufacturing tin plate: 1. The sheets of steel are cut into perfect sizes by a squaring machine.

2. From the squaring machine the steel is put into a pickling box. This pickle contains a good deal of sulphuric acid, and is applied for the purpose of removing rust.

3. Then the plates are lifted with swing tongs from the pickling box into a trough of water, where they are thoroughly washed.

5. Then they are scoured with sand to remove the last particle of rust, and to make the plates bright and smooth.

6. A short distance away, over a hot furnace, are arranged six pots, the first of which contains boiling palm oil. Into this the steel plates are immersed. 7.

The second vat contains the mixture of lead and tin metal, which is kept at the boiling point, and here the plates get another bath.

8. A second pot of metal comes next in which the plates remain but a few minutes.

9. The plates are then laid on a tin-covered table and both sides are vigorously brushed with a heavy brush. This is to remove any little blisters that may have been formed before the coating gets cold.

10. A pot of metal similar to the other mixtures is next, and into this the hot plates are swung.

11. The plates are put in a vat of boiling oil.

12. Then they are dumped into a pot of metal once more and for the last time.

13. One by one they go to a bin of sawdust and are rubbed on both sides. 14. Along side of this is a bin of bran, and here a boy again rubs the sides of the plates.

15. The plates then go to a boy who lays them on a sheepskin and rubs both sides thoroughly. This is the final touch, so far as the making of the tin is concerned.

Then

16. The plates go from the sheepskins to the stamping machine. they are packed into boxes and are ready for shipment. Tin plate is called "bright tin plate" when the sheets are covered with pure tin ore. When it is covered with a mixture of tin and lead the product is called roofing tin. The value of both kinds depends entirely upon the quality of iron or steel used, the manner with which the tin plates are made, and the quality and quantity of the coating. In making cheap tin plate, Bessemer steel is employed, and is coated by a cheap process, acid being used as a flux, and the plates finally rolled to squeeze all the coating possible off the steel, leaving only enough to cover the base. The flux is the wash put on the steel plates to make the coating stick fast to it, or, as the Welsh say, to make it "bite."

There are mills in England where rolls are used which spread the coating of tin so thinly upon steel plates that one pound of tin is made to cover one hundred square feet of plate. This, of course, is a low-grade article. As the steel costs but four cents a pound, and pig tin costs twenty-one cents a pound, there is a general desire on the part of manufacturers to put as little tin on the plates as possible.

A first-rate grade of "bright" tin contains about ten pounds of pure tin to one hundred square feet of plate. This is put on Siemens-Martin steel. An average of six and one-half pounds of tin to one hundred square feet of plate

makes a good article. As lead costs but four and one-half cents a pound, it is usually mixed in liberal quantities with the tin to make the coating metal. To be sure, lead alone will not adhere to iron or steel, and a little tin is absolutely necessary.

Tin plates are usually made in two sizes, 14x20 inches, and 20x28 inches. They are packed in boxes containing 112 plates.

The prices of imported English and Welsh tin before the passage of the McKinley bill in 1890 were, bright tin (best quality), 14x20 inches, $11. A fair grade sold from $6.50 to $7. That was before April, 1890.

In 1830, N. & G. Taylor of Philadelphia were the first in the world to manufacture "roofing tin. "' Sheets of bright tin were dipped in a bath of molten lead, and the great affinity of this metal for the tin already on the surface gave birth to the celebrated brand of roofing tin. The Welsh manufacturers quickly adopted the American idea. N. & G. Taylor of Philadelphia took out patents from the American and British governments, and established their factory in Wales for the manufacture of roofing tin. As already stated, roofing tin plates are dipped in a solution of tin and lead.

In 1891, N. & G. Taylor transferred their tin plate factory from Wales to Philadelphia, and are now making American tin plate. Their black sheets are all made in Pennsylvania, and the pig tin is the "Temescal Brand " from San Jacinto mines, California.

I have positive proof that N. & G. Taylor of Philadelphia, have their roofing tin covering 5,000 buildings in the United States. Among these buildings are the Athletic Club of Schuylkill; Navy, Philadelphia, Penn.; old Independence Hall; Daily Globe building, Minneapolis; the State Capitol of Minnesota, St. Paul; the Masonic Temple, Minneapolis, Minn; the Stillman block, and United States Postoffice, Minneapolis, Minn.

This ought to gladden the hearts of those who are daily denouncing the McKinley bill, Blaine and reciprocity. The American manufacturers have their tin plate factories, with a capacity to manufacture roofing tin and bright tin plates, to compel the Welsh and English to give the American people a cheaper and better grade of tin, and pay the United States government import duties besides. As a matter of history, N. & G. Taylor of Philadelphia were the first manufacturers of American tin plate to use the American pig tin from the mines of California.

Before the passage of the McKinley bill, in 1890, we were importing from England and Wales about $30,000,000 worth of tin plate yearly, which if manufactured in the United States would consume yearly 1,000,000 tons of iron ore, 2,200,000 tons of coal and coke, 300,000 tons of limestone, 5,500,000 pounds of lead, and 12,000,000 feet of lumber. The opponents of the tin plate industry, in 1890, said that there were no black plates made in the United States used in tin plate making, and they asked "what was to be gained by increasing the duties on the tin product when its base was wholly wanting." These persons overlooked the fact that fine qualities of sheet iron and steel used in the production of fine kitchen utensils and galvanized iron (which is simply a sheet of soft steel coated with zinc) were already made in the United States in enormous quantities, and that the plates capable of making them need but slight additional equipment to roll the finer qualities of steel sheets used for tin plates. The American product of sheet iron for roofing, galvanizing and domestic purposes, such as making of stovepipe, coal hods, bread pans, etc., already amounts to 200,000 tons production, value of not less than $15,000,000. Some slight changes were made by the McKinley bill in 1890, in the tariff on sheet steel, for the special purpose of rendering our iron and steel workers competent to go ahead with the manufacture of that particular quality of steel sheet used for tinned plates. When the McKinley bill went into effect, in 1890, the American people were then consumers of 737,735,029 pounds of tin plate annually and not a single pound was made or tinned in the United States. They cost