Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1866-04-04

OFFICE UNITED fRESS ASSOCIATION, |
Washington, March "a, 1855.
Editor Of the Wig:
The meeting Of the Iron and Steel Association,
in this city, on the 2sth utimo, had desirable ef
feet in calling the attention of Congress from the
important subject of reconstruction to far more
important one l. g., the imperative requirements of
the great industrial interests of the whole country
When it is considered that the American manu-
facturer is the American farmers best, and only
really good customer it is readily that their in
terests are Identical When it is considered that
from seventy to ninety per cent of thecos of Amer
lean manufactured goods is paid for American labor,
to be paid in turn for American food and clothing,
it is difficult to account for the apathy exhibited by
nearly all our members of Congress, excepting, of
course, Messrs. Grinnell and Kelley, Of the House,
Mr.. Sprague, of the Senate, and few Others who
are fully alive to the needs of American farmers,
manufacturers, mechanics, laborers, and may add
to the true interests of the whole people.
Three million six hundred and eghty-slx thou
sand nine hundred and twenty dollars (S3,ss6,92o)
worth of foreign dry goods were. thrown into the
New York market during the week ending the 22d
of February.
Fifty-one million seven hundred and seventy-one
thousand three hundred and ffty-six (51,7l,356,)
yards of cotton and wooden cloths were imported to
this country from England alone during the month
| of November last.
| About ninety hundred thousand dollars $4,000
O0O) worth of iron and steel imported into this
country during the year ending 30th of June last
A large portion of these goods must be paid for
either in gold or u S. bonds, at about rs per cent
below par, and nine per cent interest.
| Now 1 may be permitted to ask what part OF the
gold and bonds that policy forces us to send to
there wealthy British manufacturers will be paid IN
turn to American workmen, to be again paid TO
| American farmers for food, and American manufac-
turers for clothing?
| Great Britain has promised time and again to
take cur grain in full payment for all the goods we
purchase of her, but she has not kept her promise
in this or any other respect Upon this point the
Philadelphia North American of the 18th says;
whilst pressing her goods upon our market,
svadng the duties by false invoices, and corruptlng
the venal members of our national government she
bought her breadstuffs chiefly elsewhere She could
buy little cheaper from the Danubian principali-
lies, where the Doors subsisted black bread and
worked for compensation even lower than that
doled out to British operatves-or from Egypt,
where the half naked fellah gathered lu1uriant
crops when the Nile foods were favorable--or from
the fields of little Portugal whose people have been
vassals of England since the treaty Of Methusn, and
have been kept in poverty by an abject dependence
on British manufacturers"
The effect of this gigantic importation Of the pro-
ducts of foreign labor foreign food and capital, is
seen by the reports of the Iron and Steel Assoca-
ton at their meeting at Chicago in May, 1865, and
confirmed at their meeting in this city the 2sth
of last month.
At the Chicago meeting w. B. Berger, of the
Chenango, Penn, Iron Works, said they would
cease operations as the present stock Of ma
teral is exhausted C. Grant, of Southeastern Ohio
reported from rolling mills, with capacity Of six.
teen thousand tons per annum, when running full
time, but all idle now; also forty blast furnaces
which can produce sixty thousand tons of charcoal
pig metal will this year produce about thirty thou
sand tons The furnaces on and near the Allegha-
nv River, Pennsylvania, number about twenty
which when in full blast, made about one hundred
thousand tons per annun1 only about eight of these
furnaces are now in full blast. Out of nine blast
furnaces in the State of Missouri, making annually
when in full blast, about forty-fve thousand tons
but three are now running. Of four blast furnaces
At OF near DetrolI1 one only ID III NP'i"'o-' -''1
burgh has twenty-five rolling mills, with capacity
of producing eight to nine hundred tons OF finished
iron and nails daily These mills not averaging
more than quarter time at present There are
FIVE blast furnaces in that city, each having capac
ity to produce twenty-five tons OF pig iron per day
but two of them are now in full blast The produc
ton of bloom iron in the counties bordering on
| Lake Oh amplain, New York is about one-third Of
, that of last year. Many FORCES are idle; other:
working on half time Other reports from districts
represented in the convention showed similarly de-
pressed condition of the iron business in all parts Of
the country, with hardly an exception.
st the regular meeting ofthe Association in th.
city, nine months later, we ind that:
aThe statistics of the trade for 1866 will show
material decrease in the production Of iron compar
ed with the returns of 1864. For several months
during the past year a majority of our rolling mills
forges and furnaces altogether, or in part ceased
operation. This caused a temporary demand fol
iron. which resulted in a revival of the trade to
E wards the close of the year. and many works resum
ed operations; owing however, to the great cost Of
production, caused by the high price of labor and
increased taxation the products could not be sold al
remunerative prices in market regulated by for
eign supply. As consequence, a large number Of
rolling mills in Pittsburgh and vicinity have ceased
operations since the beginning Of the present year
The proprietors of many establishments, which have
been standing idle since last summer, express salts
faction that they were not tempted into starting
their fires by the deusiye promises of remunera-
} tive trade held out last autumn
. A comparison between the two past years shows
decrease of thirty per cent. in the production
of Iron in the United States. OF l4S rolling mills