The weekly Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1852-1855, 1852-09-09

How 1T WoRKs-Iroa.--W commend
the following extract from ali article in the
N. Y. Tribune headed "Who pays tAe Du-
tyr to the candid consideration Of both pro-
ducer and consumer:
Two years since the price Of railroad iron
10 " ares was S22 %, or fi los. per ton the
duty on which was about 81, wbereas, In
le4o, when the tariff Of that year was passed,
u had been about SIS per ton. Under the
circumstances, application was made TO Con-
gress to fix the duty at whal il had been at
the present revenue system, OF at least 10
add six or eight dollars 10 the amount levi.
ed, raising il to thirteen or fourteen dollars
per ton. Congress was then told $50 long
as domestic competition is maintained, we
shall be enabled steadily to improve our ma
chlnery, and iron will not only continue low,
but there will bea steady tendency To fall in
price; but il the English iron masters be
permitted TO destroy our competition, the
price Of iron will 60 up, ana the money that
should go into the Treasury will 20 into their
pockets" To all these representations
Congress turned deaf ear, and the eobse-
sequence has been step by step our iron
masters have been ruined, and their works
uafE DuSStu luiD LfE nHIUh OF inc DneTin.-
Essex County, bat Iatelv the seat of a thriv-
ing mahufacture, Is now almost entirely 81
lent. BOOton has been sold, FOR we think
one-ffth If its cost, and this after having
distributed millions Of dollars in wages
Armstrong and Clarion Counties have wit
messed he dOtrnfaH Of torty out Of fforty-tiCO
furnaces, twenty Of which will shortly have
been sold by the Sheriff within a period of
twelve months. Such has been the case in
almost every portion of the Union. Every
where the men who were engaged in estsb-
fishing competition for the supply Of the
world with iron have been ruined, and the
domestic make Of iron has now fallen from
$4,000 to about 45O 900 TONS, when it might
have risen to a million and half Of tons and
would have done 80 but for British free
trade.
Such vast destruction Of property should
have been followed with benefit to some
body, and such has certainly been the case,
but TO whom! To the people Of the Union I!
/ Certainly not, for their production of iron is
! far less now than it was four years since, al
though in the interim we have added four
millions 10 our population. To whom then
To the British iron makers, whose price;
have risen precisely our furnaces AM
mills have been closed, and lcho noU pui il
their pockets he iuho'e sum that Ioas, t1rO year
since, asked to Je claimed by the Treasury. TIVE
years since the price was, as we have stated
"a lbs in Wales. A year since, it had rails
ed TO Is 5s, being an addition of 81 40
Now, it is &c IS, being further addition oI
81 s0--and thus the foreign price has risen
to the whole extent of the seven dollars that
was then asked to be added.
In 1850 the British iron masters paid the
cost Of getting to market, but as competition
has diminished, their prices have increased
and now it is the consumer who pays the
duty. With another year prices will rise a.
gain, and it must be regarded as quite extra.
ordinary five do not see iron 60 up to seven
or eight pounds, the foreign producer peck
cling the whole difference between that and
the "a l5s, at which it stood when Congress:
was urged to interpOse and prevent then
from destroying all our own furnaces, forge
and rolling mills