Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1857-04-18
STANTON AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA. APRIL IS, 1857.

/ be remembered that the product of Ameri-
can iron in the last five years has doubled :;
! that it now reaches one million Of tons per
annum that it is within about three hun
bred thousand tons of the product of Great
Britain in the year 1910; and that whilst
| this product has been increasing not only
/ here, but in Great Britain, from two million
two hundred thousand up to three million
FIVE hundred thousand tons this great in
crease of production has been attended with
an increase of the priec--and why? Be-
cause the demand outgrows the supply.
know, sir, it has been said heretofore
that the advantage which tie Englishman
had i'll the production of iron was in cheap
er labor and capital. That difference is d.
ulinishing daily. have seen it estimated,
upon reliable authority, at twenty per cent
Indeed. as far back as $40. Nicholas Bid
tile, in an address which he delivered, said,
that if YOU consider the efficiency of the Ia
Dor employed in producing iron in Pennsyl-
sania, it was as cheap as that employed in
its production in Great Britain.
But here is a great fact that should re-
lieve the iron-masters from all apprehension
in regard to this; it is, that not only has the
price Of iron increased in the face of this in
creased production, but it is notorious that
the cost Of production in Great Britain,
since 1t rose from two million two hundred
thousand tons to three million five hundred
! thousand tons, has been greatly enhanced,
/ whilst here l understand it is diminishing
1t has increased, because the demand is al
ready tasking her beyond her capacity and
in order to increase the quantity she has had
to resort to inferior ores, and to transport
the ores to the coal.
Now when we come to reflect that the de-
maud 50 far exceeds the supply-when we
come to remember, too, that there is no
source from which the supply can come i'll
any great quantities except from Great Bril-
tain and the [ nited States--for it is eompu-
ted that there are only little over six mill
ions of tons produced in Europe and Amer
i lea, Of which Great Britain and the United
States produce two-thirds you come
to remember that the advantages Of cheaper
capital which the foreign producer possesses
are daily diminishing with the increased IA
cilites for intercourse and with oureonstant
aceunulations Of wealth, how can the iron
master fear such a reduction Of duty as il
proposed here ? 1t seems to me idle tina
he should DO 50 We know that every nlilt
of railroad which is laid down is conlputeo
10 take uinety-sevcn tons Of iron to make it.
aud every mile that is matte requires anuu
ally eight tons Of iron to repair It. Cpol
this estimate, for the annual repair of TIN
twenty-one thousand Mills Of railroad tia
were computed in 1856 to have been mad,
in the United Suites, and for the oonstruc
ton Of three thousand miles Of new road
the supposed annual addition, there mus
be required yearly ia this couutry alone a
bout four hundred thousand tons Of iron -
The railroad consumption of iron in the
residue Of tae world must he very far great.
er We know, too that this demand IS con
stantly growing, from the Increased use 81
iron, not only for It's accustomed purposes
but also for the new uses Of that material
The French estimate that for every fifteen
hectares of arabic land there is an annual
waste of fifty kiloerammes of iron, and foi
every fifty tons of shipping builtthere must
be used Il ton Of that metal and ia the con-
struction of HOUSES and also Of ships It's use
is constantly growing Ii England it is al
ready estimated as a cheaper material for
ship building than wood They say that in
the city of Glasgow alone they Use two hun
dred thousand ton, of pig iron annually in
manufacturing gas pipes, and water pipes,
and tubular bridges. and matters of that
sort Ia short. if had time to 90 into the
subject, could show. tlink, that it is in
g. =.
crease faster than the production, aud that
this increased production must come mainly
from Great Britain and the United States,
out mainly from the United States; for Great
t Britain already begins u give proofs of be-
/ lug overtaskcd in the fact of the enhanced
cost eff production which has been made by
the recent additions TO her annual make oi
iron, Dangerous as is political prophesy,
venture to say, that should there come nc
commercial revulson, no financial reyul-
sion in ten years from this time there viii
be no talk Of a duty on iron as 4 raw mate
rial. The manufacturers Of iron may, per
haps, ask for duty on manufactured iron
| but by that time we ought TO become eX-
porters of the raw material.
To show how unnecessarily sensitive thes,
great interests sometimes are, found, t,
me the strange fact in studying tie histor,
of the iron interest, that at one time til,
ironmasters Of Great Britain were yer,
much alarmed for fear they should be iujn
rcd by the competition from iron made il
Virginia and they actually passed a law
that none of the plantations should manu-
facture iron wares of any kind out of any
SONS pigs, or bars whatsoever, under Ger
tain penalties.
/ just as idle, in my opinion, would it b,
for Pennsylvania to fear any injury from for
eign competition under far less duty thar
propose. Is il not known that since til,
discovery of the hot blast, the anthracit,
iron is the cheapest in the world Canno
Pennsylvania withstand the whole world il
a competition Of this sort--for where els,
do you find such stores Of anthracite and o
ore lying together? In 1850 the rrodue
ton of anthracite iron in this country Al
compared with England was already a.
three hundred and sixty thousand to ont
hundred and forty thousand tons and there
is every reason to hope that We shall ex-
hibit a still more marked superiority in III,
future.
If, then, the iron interest has no reaso,
to fear the change here proposed, what Other