[Correspondence AMERICAN ECONOMIST ] WASHINGTON, D. C., March 9, 1899.Some facts brought out in recent Treasury statements respecting the production of tinned plate affords opportunity for calling attention to certain complaints which have been made here concerning the tendency of a few Protected industries to enter into combinations in restraint of trade. The results of the tinned plate industry in this country since the principle of Protection was applied to it in an adequate manner must be gratifying to every American citizen who is desirous of seeing the industries of the United States grow and expand until we shall be able fully to supply the American market on all goods which can be successfully and cheaply produced in this country. But it should be said that reports which have reached the capital concerning alleged combinations or trust arrangements affecting the marketing of tinned plate, paper and a few other articles, produced disquieting results among public men, and already tuere is talk of the introduction and passage at the next session of Congress of an amendment to the Tariff laws providing that where any industry has the advantages which accrue from Protective rates on imports of competing articles, such Protective rates shall be reduced or wholly removed if it shall be shown that, taking advantage of the Protecting influences of the law, such producers of American

commodities enter into any combination in restraint of trade, or form agreements to reduce output, hold up prices, or otherwise unnaturally withhold and restrain the currents of free and active competition among our domestic producers.

it is recognized as an elementary principle of the Protective system that it eventually reduces prices on domestic productions, and brings such productions to the consumers at lower prices than they can be supplied by foreign producers. That these results have followed under the system in almost every case known to the industrial world is susceptible of easy proof. If any cases arise wherein Protected producers seek, under the cover of the advantages which have been given them in the domestic markets, to raise prices, control the home markets unduly, or combine against domestic competition, there will be a movement in Congress to open any available door for the admission of competition.

The tinned plate industry has proved the efficiency of the Protective policy as applied to that industry. In 1891, the year following the application of Protective rates to the imports of tinned plate, the United States imported more than $35,000,000 worth of tinned plate. Under Protection the imports began to fall off, and the domestic industry it was built up and fostered, and thrived to a marked degree. In 1892 the imports fell to $12,000,000 worth, then in 1896 to $8,000,000 worth, and last year the imports of tinned plate were about $3,000,000 worth. The total domestic production of tinned plate in 1892 was given at about 13,000,000 pounds. This production had risen to 300,000,000 pounds in 1896, and the estimate for last year was 681,000,000 pounds.

They

These are marvelous figures. would be more gratifying to American people were it not for the reports that a tinned plate combination has been effected to reduce domestic competition and hold up prices. These reports received at the capital during the closing days of the busy short session are likely to receive consideration at the next meeting of Congress.

The short month of February made a good showing in the matter of customs receipts, keeping well up with the excellent results that were achieved under the Protective Tariff during January and the preceding months. The February receipts were $16,921,000. This is the best showing made since 1893, and it may be accepted by the friends of the late Democratic Tariff as positive evidence that the new Tariff is so much better than the one for which they stood sponsors that nobody in his sound senses would favor a return to lower

Tariff rates as a means for increasing customs receipts. Under the McKinley Tariff, in February, -1893, the customs receipts were only $100,000 more than in the month just closed. It will be recalled that after February, 1893, the receipts from customs duties fell off to such an extent that the Government was given little assistance from that source during all the time until the anticipatory importations set in before the passage of the present Dingley Tariff. The outlook for the present year is very bright. There is every reason to believe that the excellent results achieved under the present Tariff in 1898 will be greatly surpassed in the present year.

Some details of the operations of the present Tariff during last year, compiled by the Treasury officials, afford opportunities for interesting comparisons and evidence of the good results which have followed the changed order of things. Compared with the results in 1896, the last full year under the operations of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff, the point should not be lost sight of, that the percentage of free imports was only a fraction less under the much-abused Dingley law during 1898. This is worth mentioning, in view of the fact that the claim is made by the opponents of the Protective system that the burdens of customs house taxation are now a weight upon the people, as well as upon productive industry. In 1896 the percentage of free imports was 47.42, while during 1898 the percentage was 47.30. But the most interesting point in connection with our import trade during the two years under consideration is the fact that last year the per capita imports to this country aggregated but $7.89, while in 1896 they were $10.66. The facility with which the Cobdenites have in the past dealt with percentages in their efforts to show greater relative growth of commerce and industry in low Tariff periods, should make them now willing to concede that a customs Tariff arrangement which gave a percentage of 24.77 as the average ad valorem rate of duty on free and dutiable imports, as against 20.67 per cent. on like classes of imports in 1896, does not furnish convincing evidence that the people and the industries of this country are being overburdened with custom house taxation under existing conditions, compared with those which prevailed in that interesting era of Tariff Reform under the Democratic Tariff act in 1896.

We brought into the country last year almost $95,000,000 less of dutiable competing foreign products than were brought into the country in 1896, and it should be remembered that 49.65 per cent. of these goods were imported duty free, against 48.56 per cent. of free imports of the total importations in 1896.

M'KINLEY'S ADMINISTRATION. Two Years of Splendid Progress and Prosperity Have Followed His Election.

[Representative Grosvenor of Ohio in the New York Journal.]

WASHINGTON, March 4.-The success or non-success of President McKinley's administration for the first two years must be judged,

First, from the condition of the country as he found it, and, second, from the condition of the country as it stands today.

I think it is a very safe and conservative statement to say that never since the adoption of the Constitution was our country in a more deplorable condition than it was on the day of election in 1896.

I cannot find words to describe the disheartening and discouraging condition in which the people were at that time. There was no enterprise; everybody stood breathless. The menace of free silver, with the repeal of the McKinley law, had precipitated a condition of poverty and a general suspension of business unparalleled in all the history of the United States. Wages had been prostrated, enterprises abandoned and poverty was rapidly overcoming the masses of the American people. The early calling of an extra session of Congress made it possible to pass the Dingley bill and the country saw and realized at once that a change of conditions was upon us. It is not necessary to trace the details of what has resulted without any apparent reason except a change of administration, and all that had occurred before that change.

satisfactory state of affairs between the United States and Spain, when a temporizing, halting inefficiency and a general lack of confidence had brought us to the verge of war. I will not attempt to go into details about the management of it, because it is impossible in the space allowed me.

In a hundred and twenty days the Administration, unused to all this, improvised an army of 250,000 men, fought a great war, conquered one of the oldest nations of Europe, stripped it of its territory, and brought home the flag in honor and triumph. I do not stop to consider details of inefficiency among green troops and green commanders. It is enough for me to say in this connection that there lies not at the door of McKinley's administration the smallest conceivable fault. The great plans were carried out with wonderful success. The President has lifted the American nation far higher than it ever stood before. Scolding does not dim his glory. Disappointed officers, who thought they would have an opportunity to win glory and find that they won nothing may seek to bring disgrace upon the American flag and the American nation, but the world understands what happened, and the world will recognize in McKinley the great organizer and projector of the splendid results that followed.

In his intercourse with the people he brought about a better understanding between the Executive and the people than we have ever had before. There are no scandals connected with the civil administration of the President. He has been in office two years to-day. Yet he has not thought to hasten the removal of Democrats. He is thoroughly admired and loved by the Republicans and he is respected by the Democrats. I do not believe that any Republican President at any time during his administration has ever had so highly the regard and honor of others as has McKinley. And in all this he has shown wonderful administrative ability. con

This country is to-day more prosperous than it ever was before. Wages are better; there is a more general employment of labor; enterprise is pushing in every direction; money is enormously plenty and cheap and the outlook for the future, based on our export trade, based on the fidence of the people in our financial success, is everywhere manifested, and the most profound astonishment is reported everywhere when the actual statistics of trade and the growth of our prosperity are brought to the attention of the Republic.

I attribute all this indirectly to the administration of McKinley. Somebody else might have done just as well, but he was, in the first place, elected. His masterful campaign brought about that result. His direct procedure to execute the platform of the party gave the country confidence, and the country has responded. No man since Lincoln-perhaps not even Lincoln-has had to confront the conditions McKinley has had to confront. Early in his administration he fell heir to a bungling and un

It

was said of him when he was a candidate that he was a good-natured man, but one easy to swerve from his duty and to be guided by others. And yet this man entering upon his office with all these things said about him has shown a backbone that no other President has had, except Grover Cleveland when he happened to be wrong on the same subjects.

It was thought that McKinley was a man of one idea, of one subject, one well studied belief-the Tariff. It may be pointed out, however, that he has made public addresses on more topics of wider variety than all his opponents for office. Wherever he has gone he has discoursed before the people in a manner that has brought to him the heartiest welcome and the warmest sup

port of the whole country. He has brought into direct operation, and enthroned it as a principle of our Government, that sectionalism shall cease and that it has ceased. Others may have talked about it, and others may have favored it, but McKinley has executed it. No man has done as much as he to bind up the wounds of the civil war and to reunite a knightly people in the support of the flag and integrity of the country. C. H. GROSVENOR.

to

now

Merchant Marine of Sweden. Sweden is the latest country undertake the upbuilding of its merchant marine. According to recently compiled statistics that nation stands ninth in the rank of maritime nations with reference to the total carrying capacity of its merchant navy, its aggregate tonnage being given as 552,785 tons. Since January 1, 1896, the increase in tonnage has amounted to fully 175,000 tons. The improvement of conditions is well evidenced by the fact that whereas the increase in 1896 amounted to 40,000 tons, and in 1897 to 55,000 tons, the aggregate in 1898 was in the neighborhood of 80,000 tons. Formerly almost all Swedish vessels were built in Great Britain, but of late years the ship builders of Germany and Denmark have secured a very fair share of the work. However, much of the increase of both the Swedish and Norwegian merchant fleets is due to the purchase of British second-hand tonnage, which it is claimed is, in many cases, even more suitable for the Swedish and Norwegian shipping trade than new vessels.-" Engineering," London.

Money Talks.

Before the enactment of the Dingley law, the tin plate industry in this country was prostrated. American dealers were obliged to go to Europe for that commodity, and before it reached the hands of the consumer it became expensive because of the cost of trans-Atlantic transportation and the fact that the manufacturers had a corner on the market. We were told by the Free-Traders that tin plate could not be manufactured in the United States in quality and quantity that would meet the demand. But American capital and American ingenuity have been equal to the emergency, and we now find the making of tin plate among the leading industries of the country.

The men who are earning fifty-four dollars a week will not agree with the Free-Traders that the Dingley Tariff has been of no benefit to the tin plate industry. Money talks, and that is what the employees of the tin plate manufactories are earning. - Trenton (N. J.) "Gazette."

In the current issue of the AMERICAN ECONOMIST are presented the portraits of Messrs. William B. Howell and James S. Sherman, the two new members of the United States Board of General Appraisers recently appointed by President McKinley and confirmed by the Senate. On every side, both by political adherents and opponents, these selections are warmly commended. The President, as is his invariable custom, has been guided wholly by the desire to secure for the highly important post of general appraiser the best talent to be obtained. His first selection to fill a vacancy was that of Mr. Howell, who thus relinquishes the position of Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, in which his splendid abilities and zealous fidelity were highly appreciated. It is

said that Secretary Gage, when informed of the President's choice of Mr. Howell for a general appraisership, exclaimed: "It is a grand selection, the best that could possibly be made; but where shall I find another assistant secretary to take his place?"

Mr. Howell has had charge of that branch of Treasury Department work which deals with the customs receipts and with the administration of the law providing for the collection of the customs revenues. In this domain he is rated as one of the foremost experts of the century. His solid attainments, his profound knowledge, and his vast and varied experience along these lines fit him for the highest efficiency in the discharge of the new and important duties to which he has been called.

In addition to the qualifications already cited Mr. Howell is in belief and principle a thoroughgoing Protectionist. He believes that Protection is necessary to the full realization of the highest benefits which flow from diversified industry and a high wage scale in this country.

Mr. Howell is 33 years old, one of the youngest administrative officials ever occupying a high place under the Government. But he is old in experience. He is a graduate of the Columbia Law School and has a thorough business education. He entered the Treasury Department in 1883 on a competitive examination, making a high rating. He was a special employe of the customs branch of the service for ten years under Assistant Secretaries Spaulding of the Harrison administration and Hamlin of the last administration.

The Dingley law and the cause of Protection in general have a friend at court in the person of General Appraiser Howell. He is the right man in the right place.

James Schoolcraft Sherman is by education, training and long familiarity with the legislative affairs of the nation peculiarly fitted for the efficient discharge of the duties devolving upon a member of the Board of General Appraisers. He will bring to that work a high character, a clear brain, and long and valuable experience in national affairs. Mr. Sherman was born in Utica, N. Y., October 24, 1855. He received an academic and collegiate education, graduating from Hamilton College in the class of 1878. Two years later he was admitted to the bar and became a member of the law firm of Cookinham & Sherman. His entry into political life was as Mayor of Utica, being elected to that office in 1884 as a Republican by a handsome majority, although the city was normally Democratic. He was chairman of the Republican State Convention at Saratoga in 1895.

Mr. Sherman was first elected to Congress in 1886 and was chosen to represent his district, the Twenty-fifth, in the Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fiftyfifth Congresses. He was chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs and a member of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce of the House of Representatives of the Fifty-fifth Con

gress.

Prophecy and Fact.

These reports (exports of manufactures) 'show not only the largest volume of such exports on record, but also the largest percentage of manufactures to total exports. and the largest increase over the preceding year. The World."

But it was the "World" which howled itself hoarse against the Dingley law because it was sure that the new Tariff would kill off our exports of manufactures. It solemnly promised that after the Dingley law went into operation our exports of manufactures would fall away to nothing. And now the World" is compelled to admit that the present exports are the largest on record. For the first seven months of the present fiscal year they were $183,336,503-an increase of $23,000,000 over last year. So much for Free-Trade calamity-howling!-New York"Press."

Continuously, unvaryingly wrong on the question has been the record of American Free-Traders. Not even in England, the citadel of Cobdenism, is the doctrine of unrestricted competition so strenuously adhered to, so unreasoningly and unreasonably exploited in season and out of season, so blindly and so fatuously foisted as it is right here in our own country, where is to be seen of all men the plainest and most convincing object lesson that human experience affords of the tremendous value of Protection from an economic and a commercial standpoint.

In Great Britain the policy of FairTrade as opposed to Free-Trade is receiving much attention nowadays, and there are many people who question seriously the wisdom of a nation buying more than it sells to the extent of a billion dollars every year as the result of keeping its own door open while the doors of other nations are closed against its exports. There are those who assert that in sheer self-defense Great Britain will within the next decade be compelled to adopt some form of Protection. British Free-Traders have begun to see a light. American Free-Traders are blind to all the lights of commerce and industry. They are not able to see even their own absurd contradictions and inconsistencies.

Whether the bounty system is the best way to bring about the desirable results of American shipbuilding expansion is too deep a question to be answered right off. It is a subject that will bear thoughtful investigation.Wilmington (Del.) "Herald."