Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1869-09-17
IRON.

That OURS is destined to be a great iron
producing as we'll as Iron-working country,
every American iustinctively believes. He
cannot admit that God has filed our soil
with such enormous deposits Of Ore, Coal,
and Limestone, to be forever left there use
less and unyalued, while British engines ca
reer thereon, drawing cargoes Of British
bars and British manufactures for the use
of the dwellers on the tributaries Of tie
Mississippi, the Colorado, and the San Joa-
quin. Thus when Mr.. Hudgskin, an intel
ligent and candid Englishman residing in
this city, recently made an address to Free
Trade Meeting in Brooklyn, wherein he ar
gued that we should buy our iron from Eu-
rope because her low priced labor enabled
her to produce it much cheaper than we
Free Trade journals at once shrunk from
that position choosing 10 insist that Ameri-
can iron was dear only because the present
Tariff enables cur Iron masters to charge an
cxorbitant price Tor It'll
Such unworthy shifts cannot abide the
test Of time and discussion. The price of
iron as of anything else, is measured with
general accuracy by the cost Of producing it;
whenever the profit Of such production is
large, thousands are melted thereby to en-
bark init; and this tendency cannot be
checked until the profit falls to Tor below
the average Of that realized in other invest
meuts We shall ultimately produce iron
much cheaper than now, though the i'm
proyement aud perfection Of the processes
by which we make it and to such improve
ment it is indispensable that our iron indus
try shall not be dead but alive. The un-
steadiness Of our policy in the past has sad
ly retarded our progress. Capitalists hesi-
tate to invest the vast sums required to pro
duce steel rails for instance) at moderate
cost, with the sword Of Damocles suspended
over their heads by formidable party in
tent on the overthrow of Projections but
let the public voice be unmistakably heard
on the right side, aud millions ofcapital will
flow into the various departments Of our
iron industry, iusuring economies unattaiu-
able while our policy shall remain unstable,
precarious, capricious. We're it this day
fixed and proclaimed that no reduction of
our iron imposts would be made during the
Dext ten years, mines would be opened and
furnaces erected wherever ore and coal ex-
lists in proximity or may be cheaply brought
together; rolling mills and forges would
speedily follow in their train; invention
would be stimu ated and improvement per
feeted, until We should soon have cheaper
iron through the cheapening of the process,
the increased efficiency of the Labor employ
ed to make it. The cheapeDing would not
be fully indicated by the prices ruling in
New York for that is the point where,
while imported iron is cheapest; American
iron is necessarily dearer than at the points
of production, hundreds Of miles inland,
where it IS nearer and worth more to the
great body Of our consumers than il would
be in this city. A genuine cheapness is on
ly attained by means consistent with the lust
recompense, intellectual enlightenment and
moral elevation, of the Laboring Glass we
shall secure the former without sacrificing
the latter through the judicious, ample,
steadfast Protection of American Industry.
Horace Greeley.