New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-28
FOOD AND FABRICs-IRON.


ifs advertisement of the great Iron Works
at Boonton, N. j., which are to be struck
off to the highest bidder at Morristown on
the Ist of June. As they will VIGOROUSLY
be sold for less than half their cost, and
their stoppage will deprive several hun
dred artisans and laborers of the employ
ment which they Gf in full operation)
would naturally afford, we do hope Free
Traders will be found, if Protectionists
cannot, to buy them and set them going
again. As there is no doubt of the abund-
ance or richness of the ore, nor of the eli
gibility of the location upon or very near
the Morris Canal, and not far from the
Morristown Railroad) we cannot see
works capable of making Six to Eight
Thousand tuns of choice Bar Iron, or One
Hundred Thousand casks of Nails per
annum, closed and abandoned without an
effort to prevent such calamity to the
busy village and faithful workmen which
they have gathered about them. The pre-
sent owners and managers (who are ac-
counted skillful and thrifty men in other
business and have generally been success
full say they cannot continue to make
Iron there except at a ruinous loss-so
they give it up. Who will step forward
to take their places
These works were commenced soon
after the passage Of the Tariff of 1928, and
probably in consequence of that benefcent
measure. During the twenty-five years of
their existence, they have paid out about
S25O,OO0 per annum for Labor-say Five
Millions in all. They have afforded mar
ket for Twenty Thousand tuns per annum
ofPennsylvania Coal, paying large sums for
transportation to the canals and railroads
of ew-Jersey and giving extensive en-
ployment to golfers, boatmen, &c. They
have afforded ready and advantageous
market for large quantities of the Fruit,
Vegetables, &c. produced in their vicinity,
with business to merchants, grocers and
mechanics. The stockholders have received
but ten per cent. in all on their invest
ment; for in good times the money made
was devoted to improving and extending
the works, and in bad they had none to
divide. And now, though crippled, they
will pay every debt but those owing to GER
tain of their own stockholders for advances,
and fill an honorable grave, if they must
die. But is it well that they should {! Is
it well for Agriculture Is it well tor La
Dor! Suppose that by any means the cap
ital invested in Slave Labor were thus par
ayzed and rendered worthless, should we
not hear noise about it in Congress!
We know what Free Traders say of
such an occurrence as this" The failure
proves that these works ought never to
have been constructed. Let them sink
if they fall, it is because we can get Iron
cheaper elsewhere" But no, gentlemen!
cheaper in dollars (which are mere signs)
we may; cheaper in products or actual
values, we shall not. For much of the
Labor whereby these works produced Iron
will not be so proftably employed else
where much of the Capital embarked in
that production is destroyed by this disas-
ter many of the Products for which these
Iron works made a market can never be so
well sold elsewhere. The farmer who sold
his Hay there for twelve dollars per tun
may now get as much for it in New York,
but it will cost him half of it to bring it
here and sell it-and so of many things be-
sides. What compensation for the loss of his
home market to a seller of charcoal or
cordwood at the Iron works on Lake Su-
perior would be a like market at even
double price, in Baltimore, when treble
the value of his product would not pay the
expense of Transporting it thither +!
And this brings US TO the logic where
with the Erening Post and Journal Of
Commerce have improved the present
high prices of most articles of Food in our
City. We have just passed through a
long, severe, exhausting winter, which has
consumed an unusual amount of coarse
grains in feeding Cattle; many of our usual
food-producers are mining gold in Califor-
MIA, and so cor sumers only Of provisions;
the breaking down of rural manufactur-
ing establishments is driving thousands into
the cities in quest OF employment and sub
sistence; we are running heels over head
in debt to Europe. and so have plenty of
money: all which combine to enhance the
e FL