New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-04-12

urv Documents, it would do well to make
no assertion in the matter at all.
1t is very possible that more iron may
be imported and produced in any single
year than is in that year consumed. But
taking a number of years together 1t is per-
fectlv correct to set down the amount of
each years importation and production as
equivalent to the consumption. This being
the case we invite the readers attention to
the following table, which we take from
the last Treasury Report
1912 1886 1873. 1919. 1885, 1851
imported. loo5 15 1887 !s,s7 ~ 81! s 30
Iron produce so'o 1896" $4,000 eoO SA"o fs'"
Total soO050 s46l5 s5s3I7 9lsSs7 POI 80 r5sTo
Here it is seen that the home production
of iron grew constantly from 1912 to l04S.
During that period the importation varied
| from $4,000 tuns in l843, to $4,000 in
ls4S. The present tariff was enacted in
| 1916, but owing to the railroad mania IN
England its effect did not appear in greatly
increasing the IMPORT of iron into this coun-
try till two or three years afterward. In
| IS48 the movement of our home prOduc-
ton began to be reversed, and since then it
has constantly diminished. Furnaces and
mills have been shut up and their owners
sold out by the sheriff. Not State pro-
ducing iron in any amount but has seen this
process. The Post speaks of new mills
put in operation; there arc some such in
in localities where a peculiar ore or some
other similar cause has given special advan-
tages, but the number is trihing to those
which have been shut up. Such cases do
not affect the great fact that the production
of iron has declined. In Pennsylvania on
Nov. l, 1850, out of 29S furnaces l67 were
out of blast, and the production of iron had
fallen from 5000 tuns, as it was in 1547,
to 19S, OOO and for the present year it is
estimated that it will not exceed 100000.
A similar though not so extensive havoc
has taken place among the FORCES and roll
ing mills of that State; in the three
years named their product fell off 80 per
cent, and has since declined still further.
And there is not in the whole country
single iron-producing district of any extent
where the production has not suffered a
similar diminutiOn, and this downward
movement has not yet reached its term.
| Now, observe, that, under the protective
tariff of 1912, the home production of iron
was constantly increasing, and the demand
for iron and its use in the country were also
increasing; that is to say, the pover Of the
people TO purchase this article of prime ne
cessity was constantly becoming greater.
| On the other hand, under the tariff of
1916, the home production has steadily
fallen off, as the producers have been ruined
and their works shut up, while the importa-
ton has not met Nth corresponding in
crease. The Post says that, Z" if the i'm
portation has fallen off, it has been due to
the competition of the home made article.
This is simply absurd, and shows the re-
suit of reasoning in the manner of the doc
trinaires, without reference to the facts
They who follow such reasoning are the
blind led by the blind. The importation
has not fallen off; it has increased, though
by no means as it must have done had the
demand of the country for iron and the use
of iron remained where they were in 1916,
lS47 and l64S. to say nothing Of such a
growth as our neighbor fancies. The fact
that the home production has suffered so
vast falling off, without any equivalent
augmentation of the imports, etiectually
disposes Of his fancy, that the use of iron
has increased. 1t proves, too, that the
p0toer Of the people TO pay for articles of
prime necessity steadily diminishes under
the system of British Free Trade advocated
by The Post, just as it steadily increases
under protection.
| If The Post is so confident Of the
strength of its system, and the fimsiness
of ours, perhaps it may now venture to
take up the challenge it has hitherto so
carefully declined, and to discuss the entire
question with US in a series of articles, in
which both sides shall be laid alike before
the readers of each paper.