Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-08-03
ICoMNUN1cArED.l
The Cost Of Pig IrOn-FOOls Not All Dead
Yet

There has been good deal said of late
about the cost of pig iron, the matter being
discussed with much warmth, pro and con.
-one party trying to prove that pig" can
be produced very low, while the opposite
party adduce equally strong arguments GO
ing to show that to successfully bring forth
anything of the kind will cost very high.
We do not now refer to the matter sup
posing that the public care half so much
about the cost of iron as they do about the
cost of bread and meat, or coffee and whis
ky, but only to notice what large amount
of money certain parties are losing, by not |
making IT,
David A. Wells, late Commissioner of
! Revenue, has the honor of opening this |
discussion. His object was to prove that, !
whereas all the iron manufacturers now |
engaged in the business throughout the |
United States are rapidly getting rich by |
making pig iron at u cost of SIG to $40 per !
! ton and selling the same at about $40; and |
whereas the people-the dear people-are
burdened and oppressed beyond endurance
| by such monopolsts and extortioners
therefore the Government should at once
reduce the tariff, and give the foreign man
ufacturers better showing" and thus
bring down the price of pig iron.
The editor of the Wig, not long ago,
took up the matter, and thus bewails the
| situation:
interests (the Western States), for they
cannot afford to toll and sweat upon their
farms to make money to keep up the rich
nabobs of Pennsylvania and other Eastern
States, who make their living and their
fortunes by selling iron, etc, at enormous
prices"
The question was asked, Can Pennsyl-
vania have monopoly and get rich through
protective tariff, to tho exclusion of Ten
nessee or any other State in the Union"
To which the Wing replies: Most assur-
edly Has not that been the history of
this State for years and years? Docs not
every fair minded man know this to be
so, and as a consequence has it not been
proverbial that Pennsylvania has abso-
, lutely grown 'fat and Slick 10y virtue Of
her iron monopoly? Her advantage over
/ Tennessee and other States is, that she can
| manufacture iron cheaper than they, and
, because of this she has become strutted
with wealth.
1t appears, however, that the Wing edi-
: tor and his friend Wells do not agree on
this point rs to the advantages of Tennes-
! see. One of the witnesses introduced by
: the latter says:
r "The East Tennessee and Virginia Knox
\ vile and Kentucky, Nashville and Chatta-
f nooga, Winchester and Alabama, Alabama
f and Chattanooga North and South, and
other railroads, are almost walled in by
:. iron ore, coal and limestone, which the
= God of Nature has bestowed with lavish
!. hand upon this favored country.
# And pig iron can now be made in Ten
q nessee, Georgia and Alabama and delivered
G at Louisville at a cost OF 3d. Cincinnati
n SOB and Pittsburg S23 per ton"
When we deduct the freight from the
points named to these markets, which is
not less than so TO Sll per ton, it gives Us
f,CElUe dollars per ton as the cost of manu-
J., featuring pig iron on the Knoxville anC
# Kentucky and East Tennessee and Nir
"a ginia railroads. Either Mr.. Wells or tn,
g editor of the Wig is evidently mistaken
z as to the comparative advantages of Ten
a. nessee, but as the latter gives no proof, We
= must conclude that the former is best au
thority in this matter. Both, however
i, agree that there is more clear money in pig
. iron than in any other business that can be
- started.
= When gold was discovered i'm California
~ it was only necessary TO make the people
= belieUe in the golden tales of big nuggets t
cause II grand rush to those auriferous re-
20 gions all expecting to become suddenly
~ rich We might now expect that if thu
- people could be made to believe in the ma
bob story of all the iron men getting rich
\, and of East Tennessee, in particular, hav
- ing such superior advantages, there would
Nv be an equal rush To make sure of such
mr. rare chance 10 make Il fortune But wha
,al can we think of those carping, snarling
ot unreasonable creatures who pretend to bc
n lieve that iron can be produced at a prof
'c- of over two hundred per cent. but who 81
b. lazily down in very sight of these "wall
is of iron ON coalland limestone only to FIRE
lst about the high price of iron and the ex
i tortion of the monopoists who manufac
10 ture it. Either they do not believe in thei
~ own declarations or else they are grca
nd fools for not helping themselves to some G
As this money, when so much of it is " lynn
X around loose II. c.
Il
as King William cares nothing for all tn
rs Rothschilds in the world He has we
Gu filled treasury, with more than thirty mi
~ lions of hard dollars, the exact opposite
'cr the French treasury, whose accounts shoN
10. nothing except on the debtor side BE
,m sides, the Council of the North Germa
ur Confederation, relying on the future az
ed probation of the Diet, has granted him Il
Il unlimited credit. The King, accordingly
he was unwilling to receive the financial ut
OF gotiatOr and, while he himself packed o
W. the impairment Count Benedict with
, round answer, he sent word To the ric
Baron Rothschild by Il servant that he wa
not ut home,
a 4. A In.