Eddy, Arthur Jerome: The new competition: an examination of the conditions underlying the radical change that is taking place in the commercial and industrial world ; the change from a competitive to a cooperative basis (New York [u.a.], 1912)

THE NEW COMPETITION

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forbidden not for the sake of revenue, but deliberately for
the avowed purpose of preventing men from buying where
they can buy the cheapest.

Ill
The brief story of an industry will suffice to illustrate
the argument.
“The legislation for the establishment of the tin-plate
industry rests upon three ideas: first, that seventy mil-
lions of people should not depend upon Welsh works for
tin plate; second, that the foreign tin plate is poorly made
and does not meet our particular wants; third, that the
country needs a new industry in which more labor can be
employed. In these three statements we have a blending
of the commercial, the economic, and the political.” 1
It will scarcely be urged that these “arguments” are
based upon any philosophy of commerce, either profound
or superficial; they sound, rather, like the reasoning of
men with “axes to grind,” and so they were, for “behind
the scenes another class, the men who owned supposed tin
mines, endeavored to secure the attention of Congress.
They were anxious that the tin-plate industry should be
encouraged, provided that block tin was put on the tariff
list.”
“Prior to 1890 no tin plate had been made in this coun-
try. The McKinley tariff of that year, with its high duties
on plate and pig-tin, was the beginning of the industry.
The growth of the industry was due to many favoring
conditions. Capital was attracted, and by 1898 there were
‘forty-one plants operating 235 mills.’ 2
1 William Z. Ripley, Ph.D., “Trusts, Pools and Corporations,” pp.
295-296. The chapter on the Tin-Plate Industry is by Frank L. Mc-
Vey, of the University of Minnesota.
2In March, 1898, Tin and Terne said: “The market has continued