Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1858-08-11
Eneiish and American Iron.

In alluding, in our article Of yesterday. to tn,
contract entered into for the supply Of water-ripe
forthe aqueiuct in Washington e,, We neglect
Cd 10 enforce the conclusions which are to bc
drawn from the circumstance, by another essen
tial fact--the fact tha., as an amost universal
rsle, the Englieh send US the mcancs, quality Of
iron they nanafacturc rcscrving ihc lest for their
own use and for the use of their more Liberal pur-
chasers Of the Continent. So that the Admins
tration, besides the rcproach Of having made a
contract for foreign iron, instead Of American
iron, plenty of which is almost within the shadow
Of the Capitol at Washington, is convicted not only
Of buying foreign iron at higher pricr, hut Of
buying much meaner and inferior article. There
are, thus. three leading circumstances Which com
bne to condemn the transaction. The frst and
most important of ALL Is the going abroad to buy
iron, when had plenty Of i, at homc--the
second is. the paying more for it, according to
good authority than we would have had to pay
for american ron-aud the thirds. t!,at we get a
much inferior article-tho refuse iron Of the Welsh
and Seotch foundries, and Of much poorer quality
than even the meancst of American manufacture.
The Administration, doubtless, Supposed tina,
this transaction would escape pas.,r a.'"ntion
that the job would be quietly given " -
litical favorite, who would poke. BIS l-..red
thousand dollars profit on it without the wofil
being ever any the wiser for it. They doubtless
thought that to an Administration spending one
hundred millions Of dollars per annun, an insig-
ni6cant contract, involving only quarter of II
million, would be bat trhng circumstance
They forgot that the press was Arsns-eycd, and
80. IL, t,,,s
they forgot that the present enormous cxpcndi-
lures of the Government demand still closer
scrutiny than ever before into the financial opera
Gons of the Administration, and require Of our
public scrvants . still more rigid economy in the
disbursement Of the public treasure. 1t was thus
that the particulars Of this discredi,ablc transac
ton were brought to Highland it was thus that
the Administration stands convicted Of DISPOSE
ton to discourage American labor and American
interests. for the purpose of rewardng some party
favorise With gratuity from the Treasury.
We have already Published the evlaence-the
evidence Of the English people themselvcs-,hat
they send us the poorest article Of iron that they
manufacture. The London Engineer. an extract
from which we published week or ten days ago,
admits the fact distisctly and uncquivocally. But
the British people are not altogether to blame for
it. We shea,d, ourselves, shoulder much Of the
responsibility Tariff, under the present
system Of I'D raloreU duties, encourages the i'm
portaon Of the meanest quality Of everything that
We buy from abroad. In rage for buying
chesply, and under the operation Of our present
Tariff, encourage the manufacture of iron Of
inferior quality abroad, not only Tor railroad pur-
poses, hut Cor everything else in which that metal
is used, The demand creates supply; and the
English dealers glad enough to up their
refuse, scrap, and flag rop in the manufacture OF
such rs will bc used for American consumn,ion-
veil knowing that no other cor"'-r - e,a
market for it, and that i, would hclost end drown
away unless thus applied.
1t is easy to see that .cr sucn system. our
own American manufac, Irers mus. I've driven from
the field, and are rendered utterly lua5lr to OPP
pose anything like II successful competition to the
European founders. The eheapness Of labor gives
them an advantage over us which we could not
we'll overcome even if We were to useup the re-
fuse material which it is their custom 10 manuinc-
ture into rails for the American market. The
result is our country is flooded with cheap rails
from England. made out of the worst sort Of mate
rial-and our papers are constantly filled with ac-
counts of startling railroad accidents. involving
sometimes fearful loss Of life. More than half
the railroads Of this country laid with this in
ferior Welsh iron and such will continue to be
the long as the rage for chcapness possess
es our railroad officials, and our Government CON
tinues the folly of encouraging the importation
from abroad. instead of the Manufacture at home
Supposing that we procured the very bee, Of iron
from England, no one could say that it WAS sound
policy to import 1t, when have an abundance
of iron and coal in the very cent?, " oar con-
federacy. Still less can :, re excused, when we
reflect upon the misernl'o quality OF that which
We import, and the fearful disasters which con-
stantly resulting from its use.
1t has been only short time since an accident
occurred on the Eric Railroad, caused by the
breaking of a rail Of foreign manufacture, which
subsequent examination proved to be utterly
worthless. Nor are we left to conjecture merely,
in regard to the comparative value and toughness
of the English and American rails. The Chief
Engineer ofthe Reading Railroad. in Pcnnsylya-
MIA, has prepared table showing both the per
oentage of wear and tear and the per centage of
bredkage on the respective rails of the two coun-
tries-and the fact 10 developed that while the
wear on the English rail- for given length of
time, was from 81 to AZ per cent--on the Amcri-
can it was only from IA to Is. Che further fac.
is developed that the breakage tie English rail
was one bar in an average Of &C, Will IN ihc
Amerioanit was one bar onlvir an average of 235.
These are significant AID .,resnant facts-and
tits time that the Government, if it has any con-
r.. IL