THE PROSPERITY OF THE TINPLATE INDUSTRY.
LTD THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In the Spectator of November 21st you publish a letter from Mr. Harold Cox which contains an extract out of one received by him from a workman at Pontardulais relating to the prosperity of the tinplate trade. Nothing can be more unfortunate at the present crisis than the publication of state- ments that may lead to a. misunderstanding of the conditions existing in any particular industry. Whatever may be said of the recuperative powers evinced by the tinplate trade, it is idle to pretend that it has yet regained the prosperity it had reached when the McKinley Tariff robbed it of its American export. I have an intimate knowledge of the trade and am engaged in it. and I have interests m the district to which Mr. Harold Cox's letter refers. I assert without the possibility of contradiction that the valley, ten miles long, which commences at Pontardulais possessed, together with that village, twelve
tinplate works all in active production when the McKinley Tariff first caused our American exports to decline, and that to-day three of these works are absolutely closed, the largest being dismantled; two have entirely ceased to manufacture tinplates, and have adapted their mills at great expense to produce a different article ; while another works has ceased to make tinplates in two of its four mills. It also affects the question to know that the oldest established works in the village of Pontardulais was idle last week for "want of
orders."—I am, Sir, &c., F. W. GILBERTSON. Pontardawe Steel, Tinplate, and Galvanising Works, near Swansea.
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