Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-10-23
THE IRON INTERESTS OF THE UNITED STATES

The annexed interesting article from the Boston
Journal deserves to be universally read The iron
interest of the United States may be truly termed
national one, well on account of its very general
production the universally of its consumption.
1t is also national want, the ability to supply
which exists within ourselves, and would be most
happily demonstrated were the tariff so modified as
to afford reasonable encouragement to the domestic
industry of the country:
There few minerals widely difused and none
Of greater value than iron The this metal found
in almost every State though Pennsylvania is emphati
caly the greatest iron producing State of the Union.
Other States however, contain the in no less album
dance 1t has been estimated that in Ohio twelve hun
bred square miles underlad with iron which tract is
calculated to contain 600 900 TONS In Maryland
| Tennessee, Missouri Kentucky, Virginia, and other
States the is found in abundance And yet, with all
the lavish bounty of in this respect annually
import far from $40 900 900 worth of iron in the pig
or manufactured by rolling!
Great Britain is the greatest ronproducng country Of
the world, her annual production being estimated at
600 tons Five years ago the United States produced
the amount In 1850, according to the
turns only 564, 755 tons made This decline in
production is in great attributable to the
ducton Of duty under the freerade tariff of 1886 The
cheapness Of foreign iron in markets sets at defiance
the competition of iron and manufacturers Some
idea be formed of the great loss which has resulted
from the abandonment Of the policy of protecting
own producers by examination of the statistics Of the
iron manufacture Of Pennsylvania There 304
blast furnaces and boomeresn the State with capacity
for making 500 $50 tons per In 1850 they made
but about 200 600 tons The number Of FORCES and roll
ing mills in the State is 200, with capacity for making
$50 tons per Their actual product for lS47
202 I27 tons In lS49 the production had fallen off
to 1885, S53 The capital invested in the above mills
amounts to not far from $40 000 and the deerora
ton must be at least 80 per cent Probably not half
many aborers are now employed in the manufacture as
employed in 847 These facts show the extent Of
in iron o
country.
1t is doubtless matter of surprise with many how It's
that so heavy and yet comparatively cheap article as
iron be produced in Great Britain and sold in this
country, after paying duty freight and commissions at
less price than il be afforded from own mills
The answer is obvious We have the Skill the fuel the
faculties for reaching market and every other requisite
for the production Of iron which be found abroad
except cheap labor Labor enters largely into the process
Of iron making and laborers be obtained by the iron
masters Of Scotland at from twenty-four to thrtysix
cents day In England from thrtytwo to forty eigh
cents per day is paid In this country the wages Of
aborers is from seventyfye cents to one dollar per
day, the average being about eighty cents day Here
difference Of about hundred per cent in favor Of
the British manufacturer enabling him to produce iron
Mt cost Of only about ten dollars per which cannot
be manufactured here for perhaps twice that sum.
Itfolows that, without judicous protection great
reduction In the wages Of the aborer the iron interest
like many other branches Of manufacture must continue
depressed The desired protection was accorded the
iron business by the tariff Of 1924 tariff which
emphatcally Wing measure, and which was repealed
by the Democracy The latter party is emphaticaly
sponsibe for the existing depression with the manufac
lures Here, then, have broad line separating the
two parties and distinct and important issue in the pre-
TheWhgs aim to encourage the iron interest
and every other branch Of domestic industry the Demo
seek by free trade TO throw markets open TO the
competition Of the world, thus breaking down our manu-
featuring industry or reducing the wages Of the aborcr
TO par with the starvation price in Europe Those who
contend that there is no important issue between the two
great parties will do well to ponder upon these facts