Show TINPLATE AGAIN It has been a long time since THE HERALD has bud anything to say on the subject of tinplate but the introduction of a bill in Congress to reduce the tariff from 210 to 1 cent per pound revives the subject The production in America of genuine tinplate is an exploded fiction Not long since the association of Tinplate Consumers embracing em-bracing more than 250 corporations and firms declared that not one sheet of tin had been put upon the market by American manufacturers and the total output of all kinds did not constitute 1 I per cent of the consumption of tinplate in this country The association has been moving to have the duty increased to 320 cents a pound The representative of a prominent company com-pany lately said There is not enough tariff at present rates to I keep the outside product from being laid down in New York cheaper than it can be made here at a fair profit I say this as a buyer and i know what we get and we do not get American tinplate not because wo will not use it but because it is not on the market I ihiuk if the matter were thoroughly sifted you would flnd the sheetiron manufacturers at the botlom of it If then no infant industry is protected pro-tected if no fields for American labor are opened in the tinplate interest it would I seem there ought not to be serious objection i objec-tion to reducing the rate of tariff and tuerooy me price so that American consumers con-sumers may have the benefit The big exporters ex-porters such as AIIMOUR Co can get a rebate on their cans by the terms of the McKINLEY bill but householders and small operators have no such advantage The attempt to deceive the public by concealing con-cealing the fact that tho Gocalled tinplate manufacturers have been importing black sheets and tinning them has come to naught The people of the country have found out that they have been deceived and been paying seven or eight milllions of dollars per annum in excess of what they ought to pay for a commodity that is now and must always be of prime necessity in every household SUBSIDIES Wo observe that yesterdays dispatches bring word that on Wednesday last Mr EXLOE chairman of the committee on merchant marine submitted to the house the report of his committee recommending the repeal of the mail steamship subsidy act It dissents from the policy of subsidies sub-sidies on the ground that it is robbery and says if the policy of subsidy is right it should apply to all and that the cotton planter has as much right to subsidy as the ship owner This represents the views of Democrats on that subject and hence we call the attention of our readers to it A minority report is presented arguing in favor of the retention of tho law that it is necessary to give an impetus to ship building build-ing The minority maintain that bad our government pursued in the past tho subsidy policy wo would have a supremacy I on the high seas in merchant marine instead in-stead of paying during the last thirty years the enormoils tribute of over three b billion dollars for transporting goods hiefly to Great Britain Almost instinctively the mind inquires Whatis the cause of our present insignifi c ance < in commerce on the high seas Taft l ng into account our mineral resources our forests our long sea coast with our interior erior lakes and mighty rivers we ought as an eminent gentleman assortswe ought to have been the shipbuilding ship owning and shipcarrying nation of the world Into our hands ought the commerce of the world to have naturally drifted Into our coffers ought to have ben gath ered tho profits of these exchanges And what is unfortunate for the Republican party is that thirtyfive years ago it was ours not all of it of course but 70 percent cent of it was We have lost it continues the gentleman above quoted Wo own no ships except those in the coastwise trade with such exceptions that they scarcely need to he spoken of Our own exports are transported in foreign bottoms under foreign flags and all the profits of their carrying in every way and of the return inK cargo of imports for which they are sold go to foreigners Millions upon mll lions which ought to have belonged to us have been literally by us thrown into the laps of foreigners by our own action If men would know why our shipping has been driven from the high seas until our merchant marine is insignificant let them study the following facts The capacity of American ships in 1850 was 1440000 tons and in 1660 the shipping industry had so prospered under a revenue tariff that the capacity had become 2330000 tons In 1SGO our commerce encompassed every ocean pene trated every sea and traversed every navigable navi-gable rher But the Democratic was sue succeeded by a Republican administration and the ruin brought to American shipping by free trade as shown by those statistics must now of course be followed by the opposite of feet duo to tho Republican system of protec ion As soon as the high tariff had time to bring about its legitimate results the tonnage of American vessels fell to 1200000 tons and in 861 the United States had but 19 per cent of the sailing vessels and Great Britain had 80 percent per-cent while prior to 1500 the United States had I three fourths of all this carrying trade After twenty years of high protection of 555 steamships steam-ships that traversed the ocean only four belonged onged l to Americans or carried the American flag In I860 the value of our exports and imports was GO000000 of which JCO000000 worth were carried in American vessels Under high protection pro-tection the proportion continued to fall till 1683 when of 51300000000 of exports and imports only SG3COOCOO worth were earned In American ships That is in 1883 Amercan ships carried only 16 per cent of our exports and imports while in 1E60 they carried 70 per cent It may be denied by Republicans that high tariff the tendency of which is to restrict re-strict our foreign trade is not wholly responsible re-sponsible for this change in our ocean commerce but if they deny that their policy pol-icy i produced this result they cannot deny that it has failed to arrest this gradual decay To arrest it now and reestablish the supremacy of American commerce on the high seas which a Democratic policy had won for our country thirtyfive year ago they propose a system of subsidies which means taking money from the pocnots of the people and putting it into tho hands of shipbuilding companies That the Democratic majority of the House committee on merchant marine very properly prop-erly characterizes as robbery From 186 until now the Republican party bus been in the control of the government with the exception of a single presidential term During that time the American carrying trade on the high seas has fallen from more than 70 to less than 1G per cent and let the Republicans shullle how they may they cannot get rid of the fact that this result has been produced under their rule and that their policy is responsible for it |