New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-01-17

OF Plg Iron we shall make In 1871 wouiu schu
up the average price of the article in this
country far above the present rates.
If it were true that Pig Iron might be made
somewhere else in our country cheaper than In
the Mahoning Valley, Protection would nowise
prevent the transfer of its production TO tlat
cheaper locality Protection only favors Home
production it does not favor one section more
than another Let whose can find spot IN THIS
broad land where Iron can be made cheap, set
to work there and make Iron-the more the
better-and sell it as cheaply as he can afford
to. If he can undersell the Mahoning valley
iron-makers, he will put out their fires and shut
up their furnaces: the Tariff nowise preventing
him.
The Post proceeds to argue-or rather, 70 as
sert-that We might procure our Iron OF Great
Britain for less Wheat or Corn than it now
costs us. Why not add less Hay, Milk, But
ter, Potatoes, Cord Wood, Pasturage, and Char
coalq The assertion would then be more pal
pably absurd, but not more mistaken, than 1t
is as it stands. A very large proportion OF the
commodities which now pay for our home
made Iron would have no price, or next to
none, if our furnaces and factories were
re- transferred to Europe. We recently cited
the case of Connecticut farmer who paid $40
per acre to have the wood cleared from 100 acres
lust before the Tariff of '42 went into operation
and sold the wood on the next two hundred acres
for $40 per acre to the furnace which that
Tariff set to work directly afterward. Here
was the price of one hundred tuns of Pig Iron
at $40 per tun obtained for what was anu
must have remained worth less than nothing
while our Iron came from Europe. Who does
not recall instances within his own knowledge
where the establishment of a furnace or fac
tory has thus gwen value to stone-quarries,
forests &C., &c, which previously could hardly
have been given awayY In our Judgment, we
could not have bought of England the Pig
Iron we made in 1869 without paying far more
for it in products than it cost us when made
by orr own people The Post dissents. We
go to the country on the issue.
But The Post prophesies. Let us listen:
eff this works. not stopped by repeating the
duty It may stop itself by general disaster to tho iron
masters II the enormous profits of rOn-Dakng have
already stimulated Its domestic production to such an
unnatural extent that it is made in furnaces where
it costs forty per than in good situations then
the time when there will be actual competition IN the
business "a approaching AS yet cannot make all our
own iron but let the diversion of industry from employ
ment profitable TO the country continue httle
onger let furnaces be increased until they have the
capacity supply the country with iron, and ne duty
tc cease 10 sustain me price. Nothing then stop Its
decline but the OF all furnaces which require more
than the natural price TO support them The fate OF
protected wool threatens be the fate OF protected
iron." -
Comments by The Tribune.
Here is clear abandonment of Weiss posi-
ton last year, that our product of Iron is not
increased by Protection. The Post says it Is ;
and herein The Post is right. If there be one
per cent more profit in smelling Pig Iron
than in growing Corn or Cotton, Capital will
discover the fact, and will rush into the Iron
business, Just as miners in the Rocky Noun
tains hasten to new "strke" reported OF
| remarkable richness. The duty will not and
cannot Sustain the price = that is and must
be governed by the average profit realized in
| other pursuits. We NO" mailing two
sixths of all the Pig Iron we use: let us make
a little more, and The Post says there will be
"actual competition in the business that is, a
tun of Pig Iron will be sold for what it costs
neither less nor more. We believe that to be
the fact now f; since The Post asserts that it
soon must be. we waive further discussion
Enough that The Post agrees with us that the
| law of supply and demand regulates the price
of protected articles the same as of any
other, and that it agrees with us that 1t will
and must govern the price of Pig Iron.