AN EFFECT OF "DUMPING."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Perhaps you will allow me a little space to amplify some facts I submitted to you recently as to the bearing of Free- trade upon the tinplate business, and incidentally to indicate some of the effects of "dumping." When American steel was last brought in to disturb the Welsh market bars stood at 27 10s. With steel at that figure the profitable manufacture of tinplates was a practical impossibility, and the business was seriously jeopardised. A parcel of American bars came in and the price fell to 25, with the result that works which had threatened to close down were able to keep working. A leading maker tells me that to convert raw material into a ton of steel costs in labour 10s., but by the conversion of a ton of steel into tinplates 22 10s. is spent in labour. To secure the greater the lesser had to be sacrificed. These facts seem to show that, like adversity, " dumping " may have sweet uses.— I am, Sir, &c., THOMAS REES. "Cambria Daily Leader," Swansea.
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