Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-03-24

IN the monument. gentleman of New York
inquiries whether n block would be accepted.
with this inscription .'Presented by the friends
of Thomas Paine, author of the s.Crisis" the
"Rights of Man." and Common Sense
A..SHADE TREE SoCIETY' has been organized
in South Boston. Each member must annually
plant trees Or pay fine of 50. An excellent
ciety, and one calculated to dispense more good
during the dog days at least) than many others
now 10 existence there.
RAILROAD IRoN.-The following speculations
as to the advance in tho price of iron are from
the Boston Railroad Times:
The sudden and great advance which has re-
Gently taken place in the price of railroad iron
is circumstance of unusual importance to vari-
interests of this country. In less tina n
year the price of railroad iron in Great Britain
which is the principal seat of It's manufac turs
and its controlling market-has advanced from
sf5 or sos to tf10 or $50 per ton. There is
every to believe that it will continue to se
and not stop short of de12 or ETA per ton. Six
years ago iron went up in much the same way
rising in very brief period from 5e5 to sel2 per
ton. This advance then was produced as it is
now, by the projecting and constructing of a grea.
number of railroads, with the essential difference
that the mania at that period was confined chiefly
to England. whereas it is diffused over many
countries, raging most furiously in our own, and
embracing much vaster aggregate of projects
The railroads in progress which produced the
great advance in iron in 1947, did not exeeed three
thousand miles in aggregate length, though a
much larger amount was projected, aud after
wards partially abandoned. The investment of
capital in these British railroads caused the most
disastrous commercial revulsion experienced in
Great Britain.
1t ruined many hundreds of her richest mer-
chants, and produced loug-contnued prostra-
ton of every industrial interest, from which it
| required years of patient labor and economy to
recover.
| From the best information accessible to the pubs
icit appears to be quite certain that there now
| in progress and in actual course of construction
| 10 Europe and America, at least twenty Thousand
i miles Of iron railroad, besides vast amount of
| projected railroads not yet begun, which we do
not take into account Of this amount of rail-
road in progress, 5000 belongs to Europe, and H.
| 900 at least to this country, exclusive of more
| than 1000 miles now constructing in Canada.-
| We have list made out of the railroads
| now under way in each State which amounts in
| the aggregate to more than $4,000 miles, and
which list has understated rather than overstated
the TRUTH for in this State alone it omi so miles
of railroad in actual construction, and has made
similar omissions to other States. However
incredible the aggregate may appear at first sight,
| it is impossible for the careful scrutiny to
make any deduction from it.
| Railroads require at least one hundred miles
of iron for single track, and of the roads in
progress in Europe, 1000 will be double track
roads, 1t follows from this that the railroads now
in the of construction in Europe and
America will require for their completion no less
| than two millions and four hundred thousand tons
| of iron. To make this quantity will occupy all
the rolling mills in the world, which are engaged
in the manufacture of railroad iron, at least six
years-those of Great Britain furnishing three :
fourths. and the United States, France, and
| Belgium the remaining fourth. The best author
tiles do not estimate the largest quantity Of
railroad iron in any one year as high as 4O0.-
| 900 tons, yet even at this rate it will take six
years to furnish iron for the roads already be-
gun.
The necessary consequence of this state OF
things is, that the price of railroad iron will not
only keep up. but further advance; and be main
tained at very high prices for avery long time.
| This will make the manufacture of railroad iron
| the best manufacturing business that can be
dertaken in this country tor some years, for it is
affirmed on the best authority, that the article
which is nav selling at $40, with every prospect
of advancing at least $50 per ton, pays fair
| profit to the maker at $50 per ton.
The advance in iron will nearly double the
cost of many of the railways at the and south,
tor most o fthe grading upon some fthem WAS
less per mile than the cost of the iron,
before it advanced. The profit to a few of the
companies which have secured their iron at low
rates, will be very large. The English railroad
companies now compelled to pay $40 per ton
more for their iron at home, than the price at
whish our railroad companies were enabled to
obtain it about year ago., freight and duties in
clnded.
4 totk- &C., l.: