A tariff which protects American labor and industry and provides ample revenues has been written in public law.

-WILLIAM MCKINLEY.

THE TIN-PLATE INDUSTRY.

Established Under McKinley Protection, Checked by Democratic Free Trade, It has Effected a Saving of $35,000,000 to the Country and Now Gives Employment to 17,000 People, Who Earn $10,000,000 a Year in Wages.

By B. E. V. LUTY, Pittsburg.

The American tin-plate industry is the best illustration of the benefit of a protective tariff. It is for this reason that it is singled out by the Democrats for especially vicious attack.

The McKinley protective duty of 2.2 cents a pound went into effect on July 1, 1891. For years prior to that time there was a revenue tariff on tin plate of one cent a pound. Under it no tin plate could be made in the United States, our supply being all imported from Wales, which had a monopoly. The Welsh manufacturers had an understanding among themselves which amounted to a trust, and charged exorbitant prices. The duty, being a revenue one, was paid by the American consumer. The reduced duty of 1.2 cents in the Wilson-Gorman law went into effect on October 1, 1894, and caused a wage dispute which kept all the American tin-plate works closed from that date until the latter part of January, 1895, when they were put in operation at greatly reduced wages. The American tin-plate works were then enabled to operate under the existence of the Wilson-Gorman tariff law because:

Growth of the Industry.

1. The industry had acquired great momentum under the McKinley law.

2. Economies and new processes were introduced during that period, after great expenditures of time and money.

3.

There were heavy wage reductions.

4. The Wilson-Gorman duty of 1.2 cents a pound was 0.2 cent higher than the old revenue duty.

5. The general depression in the iron and steel and other industries, caused by the Wilson-Gorman law, brought the raw materials of tin-plate manufacture in the United States down to lower points than had ever been seen before.

Five Hundred Mills Busy There:

Up to July 1, 1891, when the McKinley tin-plate duty became effective, over 500 tin mills were kept in practically steady operation in Wales. Since then there has been a continuous succession of strikes and lockouts. The number of mills in operation has fallen below 300 at times, and prices of tin plate in Wales were brought down to a level formerly unknown. The Welsh tin-plate trust was completely broken up. The following table shows the decline in the Welsh tin-plate trade due wholly to the establishment of the American industry, while the partial revival since 1898, due to the opening up of markets in other countries not protected by a tariff, will also be noted:

British Exports Decrease.

Exports of tin plate from Great Britain to all countries since 1887, in long tons:

The following table gives the imports of tin plate into the United States since 1889 in long tons :

Our Imports are Now Inconsequential.

The great bulk of the imports in these later years was neither for domestic consumption nor subject to the duty, being known as "rebate" plates, on which the duty is refunded by the Government on the export of articles made from them, as will be explained more fully later. Deducting such rebate plates, the imports of tin plate for domestic consumption and subject to the duty have averaged, from July 1, 1897, to March 31, 1904, only 6,320 tons per annum, a wholly inconsequential quantity, and made up wholly of fancy plates sold under special brands.

The following table gives the production of tin plate in the United States in each calendar year since 1891:

The following table shows the highest and lowest prices in Wales of full weight coke tin plate since 1889. The great decline caused by the American industry will be noted. The much higher prices in 1899 and 1900 were caused by the great advances in raw materials, especially steel and pig tin, which have occurred all over the world:

The following table gives the average price paid for full weight coke tin plate at New York each year since 1890; prices are for imported plates up to and including 1894 and for domestic plates since then:

On June 13, 1904, the current market price of tin plate was $3.45, f. o. b. mill, Pittsburg district, for 100-pound coke plates. This, with 15 cents extra for "full weight" (108 pounds) and freight to New York made the price of full weight plates in New York $3.79.

A Saving of $35,000,000.

By making a careful estimate of what tin plate would have cost the consumer from the beginning of 1892 to the middle of 1900 had there been no American industry and no protective tariff, and closely calculating what it actually has cost in these years with the protective tariff and the American industry, it has been found that the country has saved to date fully $35,000,000 through the McKinley tin-plate industry. Most of this saving was due to the American product selling at so much below the imported, but part was due to the lower prices at which the foreign was sold, on account of the competition, before the country made all the tin plate it needed.

Earnings Much Higher Than in Wales.

The average weekly earnings of all employes in American tin mills are from two and a half to three times as much as in Wales. This is due mainly to wages being much higher per unit of output, but it is also in part due to the fact that there is a very much greater capital investment per unit of output in America than in Wales. The American manufacturer spends perhaps three times as much money in building his plant and this greater investment enables the men to turn out a greater product per week without greater exertion.

Even per ton, however, American wages are much higher than the Welsh wages. Taking the wages being paid in American mills in June, 1904, the comparison stands as follows, for the single branch known as the hot-mill labor, this being only one step in the process of tin plate manufacture:

Which shows that on these jobs American wages per ton are 115 per cent. higher than in Wales. On account of the greater output, the actual weekly earnings are nearly three times as great as in Wales.

Tin-Plate Is Cheap.

Tin plate is cheaper in the United States now than it was at any time prior to the passage of the McKinley protective duty, and the present price at New York is only 27 per cent. higher than the lowest price on record at any time.

The followinig is the cost, delivered New York, of the quantities of tin plate required to make the articles named, based on the open market in May and June, 1904:

The famous dinner pail made of American tin, therefore, now costs only what the workman pays for an ordinary street car fare.

Workmen Recognize Tariff's Responsibility for High Wages,

In October, 1902, the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers gave the clearest recognition that has ever been given of the fact that the tariff is responsible for the wages they receive. The condition was that while the American tin mills had captured practically all the demand for tin plate for domestic consumption, the Welsh manufacturers were still shipping in from a million and a quarter to a million and a half boxes (50,000 to 65,000 tons) of tin plate, which was made into cans for exports of petroleum, fruit, fish, etc., and for some minor purposes. Through the operation of the general drawback law the Government, on the export of these commodities, paid to the exporters 99 per cent. of the duty which had originally been paid on the tin plate so used. Thus the tin plate used in this "rebate trade" was practically duty free. The Amalgamated Association therefore made, in October, 1902, an arrangement with the American Tin Plate Company whereby they would work up plates intended for the rebate trade, at wages 25 per cent. less than the regular scale rate. It was recognized that this percentage did not represent the full concession needed to capture this remaining trade from the Welsh makers, but the company was willing to make up the balance itself.

The plan was put into practical operation by 3 per cent. of the men's total wages being set aside in a special fund, from which withdrawals are made as cans, etc., are exported, equal to 25 per cent. of the wages originally involved. This apparently complicated system was adopted partly because it would have been inconvenient to identify each lot of tin plate as it went through the mill as being intended for export purposes, and the safer plan was adopted of the wage rebate being payable just as the actual exports were made.

By this action the men recognized that the tariff was directly responsible for the wages they were receiving, and showed that they were willing, in competing with Welsh manufacturers operating under no tariff, to make a concession in wages.

To the middle of this year the amount of business done under this arrangement was not very large, as the mills were quite busy on strictly domestic business. In the past few months the rebate business has assumed quite important proportions.

I am a protectionist because our country has prospered with protection and languished without it.-Hon. B. F. Jones, in the American Economist.

I believe in the doctrine of protection because the facts of our national experience thoroughly exemplify its truth. No great American statesman, except the half-forgotten leaders of the slave power, have disowned the protective system-Hon. J. P. Dolliver, in the American Economist,

THE TEXTILE INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

How Labor and Agriculture Have Been Mutually Aided and Prices to the Consumer Reduced Under the Protective System.

[By Edward Stanwood, author of "A History of the
Presidency," "American Tariff Controversies of
the Nineteenth Century," Etc.]

If one were asked to designate the American industries which may be regarded as the most conspicuous trophies of the pro tective policy the answer would undoubtedly be: textiles, iron, and glass. The most dramatic conquest the policy can boast is in one branch of the iron and steel industry, namely, that of tin plates. Nonexistent in 1890, it gave employment in 1900 to nearly 15,000 workmen, and provided practically the whole supply of tin plates for the immense canning industry of the country at prices far below those which prevailed when the market was controlled by foreigners.

Nevertheless, the most important achievement of protection is the establishment and development of the mills in which is spun and woven the material of the clothing of the people-cotton, wool, and silk.

The Father of his Country in his first annual address to Congress used the following language:

"A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies."

Although clothing was one of the articles indispensable in time of war, the manufacture of which it was obviously the duty of Congress to promote, it was not until after the war of 1812 that a serious thought was given by Congress to the protection of the manufacture of cloth of any material. During the period of nonintercourse that preceded the last war with England it was found impossible to buy in the country $6,000 worth of blankets to supply the Indians. During the war the only way in which clothing could be procured for the soldiers of our Army was by importation secretly from the British provinces in violation of law-a violation at which the Government was compelled, by the necessity of the case, to connive.

After the war the country was flooded with foreign textiles, and the cotton manufacture which had been established under the protection of nonintercourse was brought almost to the verge of ruin. Then began the attempts to foster the cotton and woolen industries by means of a protective tariff, which, often interrupted, have continued to the present time.

The Cotton Industry.

Cotton manufacture has enjoyed fairly adequate protection for three-quarters of a century. Even under the Walker tariff of 1846 the rate of duty was sufficient to give the home manufacturer fairly complete control of the market for the coarse and medium goods, which constitute by far the largest amount of goods consumed by the average family. Beginning with the Morrill tariff of 1861 adequate protection has at all times been given to almost all classes of cotton manufactures, and the results have been a great growth of the industry, a large employment of labor, and an increasing market for the raw product of southern plantations. Keen domestic competition and improved machinery have reduced the prices of goods enormously. Thus every interest connected with this industry, directly or indirectly, has been benefited-the manufacturer and his employees, the southern planter, and the whole population of the country, because all are consumers of the products of cotton mills. In recent years the United States has begun the