New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-12-13

ducing the net receipts from customs; ana
two hundred more at cost of but few Mlilions
of Revenue. At proper time, we shall 1aVor
and urge such extension of the Free-Llst'
Shall Coal be placed in that listf
We hope it may, for reasons quite other than
those commonly urged by the advocates Oh
Gree Coal.n New-England will obtain some Coal
from Nova Scotia q little cheaper than she
now does; our Gas-company "rings" will make
n little more money out of their Nova Scotia
coal-mines than they now do; but that they
will give to their customers either cheaper or
better gas, this deponent. not knowing, cant
saw. Southwark and westward of the Della
ware. Gree Coal" will amount to just nothing
at all. save the loss of $4,000 per annum TO
the Treasury.
But so monstrous have been the misstate-
ments and popular delusOns with regard 70
the effect of the duties on Coal Gao cents per
long tun on Anthracite, $11 on Btumlnous)
that we want them taken off in order that the
Free Traders may be brought to confusion
When they induce the people of City stu
ated MS Rochester is to tell Congress that
they could be supplied with cheaper Coal
from abroad if it were not for these
duties, we want these reckless assertions
brought to the tOuchstone of experience.
Doubtless, Coal will be cheaper, then
dearer, in the future as in the past and dealers
will sometimes advance the price for the SIM
pie reason that they can; but, outside OF New
England and in the main even there, the
price of Coal in this country Will be no more
affected by the retention or repeal of the duties
than the price of corn or cord wood. Intelli-
gent men know this; honest men admit it;
knaves ignore it, and We want to sec them
exposed to the indignationRof their dupes So
whenever the Treasury can spare IT. let us
have an end of all duties on Coal.
We cannot so readily assent to a reduction
in the duty on Pig Iron, though the Ways and
Means Committee is reported as favornS it.
We are now marching toward cheap Iron by
the right road-that on which we cross no Bull
Runs. Iron furnaces are springing up allsoyer
the country-in Illinois, in Indiana IN Missouri,
in old and in West Virginia, in East Tennes-
see and North Carolina, and we hear OF pur-
chases Of Ore and Coal lands with intent TO
commence mining and smelling in Alabama.
The Free Trade assumptions that lron-maflng
is a monopoly, and that large profits realized
therein do not incite to the investment OF
more and more Capital and Skill in the business,
are contradicted by facts of the widest notorie-
ty. We never before made so much Iron in
year as we did in 1868; but we are making
considerably more still in 1860. We are conf
dent that the new furnaces which have gone
into blast this year number scores II not hund-
reds while nearly every one previously active
has increased its capacity, or at least Its pro-
duct. Were it settled and understood that the
duty on Pig Iron would stand unaltered for
five years, land it is no higher to-day than un-
der the Calhoun Lowndes Tariff Of 1870, we
need not wait half that time for an abundance OF
American Iron at price at least s. per
tun lower than the present. We should no long
or be obliged TO coax and entreat the Free
Traders to make Iron-they would rush head
long into the business if they could feel rea-
sonably sure of a profit of even So per tun for
three years. Reducing the duty is putting
back the shadow on the dial-is warning our
people off from building Imoro furnaces and
making more Iron. We trust no such back
ward step will be taken.