New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-02-06

MES we should, doubtless. make consider
ably more Pig Iron in the absence
Of all Protection; but we make great
deal moro by the aid of such Protec-
ton, and are increasing our product continu-
ally. If this industry were half profitable
as its adversaries pretend, we should increase
it much faster still; for they would all rush
in,o it. They already own the raw materials
Ore, Coal, Wood, LimestOne-in immeasuraDle
abundance and they ut any moment can buy more
cheaper than brush fence. II there were an aver
age profit of S. per tun on the production OF
Pig Iron, they wOuld be into it heels over head
within month They choose to keep their
cmital invested in houses and farms, dry
goods and corner-lots, fancy stocks and gold
gambling, because they think these investments
pay better; and of this they are their own
Judges Making Pig Iron is so easy ana simple
that an average profit of S. per tun on the
product would draw capital into it faster than
il ever rushed into corner-lots or California,
and with far better returns,
-" But why can't we make Pig Iron as cheap
as the British canW
Answer-We can, if you estimate the cost ID
Labor. Great Britain has some advantages
over us in generations of experience, IN I'M
mcnse aggregations of capital in far closer
network of railroads and canals, which enable
her iron masters TO concentrate their materials
at the mouths Of their furnaces more cheapy
than we can. We estimate the average cost
of this concentration TO her iron makers at ~
per tun of product, while ours pay treble or
ouadl1ple that amount. By-and-by, when our
country shall have been as closely gridroned
with railroads as Great Britain is and when
orr mines of Iron and Coal shall have been
more generally developed, we shall make Iron
! cheaper than al present. The bridge now beng
| thrown across the Mississippi at st. Louis,
when supplemented by two or three plugs
of railroad on either side, will bring together
| the Coal of Illinois and the Ore of Missouri Mt
| n cost which will ultimately cheaper Iron for
the entire Valley of the Missouri. AS yet we
are comparatively young in the business, bnt
we are getting our growth rapidly. Every
link like the st. Louis bridge is so much
gained for true American independence; and
we are welding many such each year Let us
hold fast to Protection and our need OF 1t will
surely diminish.
Yet we do not expect, and would not lead
any to expect, that we shall soon make
Iron for as few dollars per tun as the British
can, simply because Labor IA better paid here
| than in Europe. A tun of Pig Iron represents,
| in the average, fifteen or twenty days work !;
| and twenty days work IN mining Coal, dig
ging and transporting Ore, quarrying and
drawing Limestone, chopping Wood, burning
Charcoal, &c. costs an average of $40 here
and less than $40 in England. Hence, we APP
/ hot Inn Of Irou b,.
sold for fewer dollars in Liverpool than in
| New York, for the same reason that book Is
stereotypcd for less money in Great Britain
than in this country. In some cases, we are
enabled to overcome this law by reason of our
superior Inventions and Machinery 50 that we
sell American Spades and Shovels, Wood
Screws and Sewing Machines, Axes and
Reapers, at n profit in British Col
onies, after paying British duties; but,
generally, British Wares arc Fabrics, like Brit
ish Minerals, will be sold for fewer dollars or
pounds sterling than their American rivals.
Yet we hold that it is mistaken economy on
our part to buy the British articles because
their apparent cheapness is deusive-because
we must pay more for them in the products of
our labor than for their American rivals. THE
$40 per tun for whatever Pig Iron it may re-
quire, if made where the makers will be likely
to buy and read our issues, than to get it for
$50 of British iron masters, half whose hands
cannot read at all, while the residue rarely or
never see an American journal; and our case
illustrates general law. A farmer who uses
500 worth of American Iron per annum and
pays for it in wood on the stump at 81 per
cord, would make a miserable bargain by get
ting his Iron from Europe for $50 and leaving
his wood to rot on the ground for want of a
market So of every one who produces any
thing or has anything to SELL
But we had intended to speak only Of the
diverse utterances of the Free Trade Oracles,
Euening Post lately had an article which
argued that Pig Iron could never be proftably
made among us, because its average price in
Liverpool is only 52shlllings gold Cess than S13)
per tun. AS We cannot make it nearly so
cheap, The Post would have us give it up as
a bad job. But The World don't like this pros
pect or suspects that our labOring class won
like it, and so shows the little joker under
quite different thimble-as follows:
"Are We then TO r.inq,sh the manufacture OF iron,
This is many fcOwctzens the only evident al
tentative, and is not agreeable They OF course regard
the friends OF people as being to some extent
their enemies We therefore, once moro present view
the ease which we laid before our readers years
ago. We compared the actual OF iron In certain re.
gons OF Wisconsin with that IN the best ironproducng
regions OF Europe and demonstrated that Tor the supply
OF the interior OF this continent own manufacturers
need fear no foreign competition Mr. Wells carries the
point farther and SowS nat The acreage market price Of
iron last year ia Greai Britain icas "a 3s 3D. Gao 80 In
goldl lie ascertaned have already stated. that
the present average cost Of producing ron under favor
and management
other circumstances has any man In business right 10
expect success not than SIC per tun In currency
As Commissioners he that the