New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-01-18
Iron.

To us, the fact that this country produced IN
1869 more than Nineteen Hundred Thousand
TINS of Pig lrOn-eXCecding by more than
| one thousand Million TINS her total product
of that article in any year prior to the revival
| of Protection in 1S6i-is most significant and
gratifying. Ours are an age and country where
in almost every clever person. with many Of
the shallow and stupid, aims TO live and thrive
| by some form of traffic or agency-SOme-
! thing that is not Productive Understanding
that adds naught to the aggregate wealth
P0f mankind; and the fact that we have more
than doubled our aggregate product OF Pig
Iron since even so late as 1865, seems to uS aust
theme of patriotic cXultatiOn. No other coun-
| try on earth has shown a corresponding pro-
| greSs; in fact, most countries have made no
progress at all in IrOn-mahing since 1866;
| Great Britain, Belgium. aud perhaps Russia,
constituting the exceptions. In view of the
| wholesale assertions of the Free-Traders that
| Protection does not tend to improve processes
| and increase production, but only to enable
producers to exact exOrbitant prices for IN
| feriOr products-asSeItions which Commissioner
| Wells distinctly cOuntcnanced in his last years
| Report-we present this additional Thousand
| Million Tons of Pig Iron smClted by our cOun-
| trvmen in 1869 as a solid and weighty illuStra-
| ton of true Political Economy. Considering that
| the average quality of our Pig Iron is confess
edly better than that of Great Britain, and that
we produce it mainly i'll the interOr-at Pitts
burgh. Detroit, Chicago. Milwaukee st. Louis.
| and at other points on our Western waters where
it is worth far more to the mass of our consumers
than it would be in our seaportS-we submit
\ l. e.. ...I, l.
| than Thirty Millions of Dollars in com; while
! the new furnaces in which it is largely produced
| the mines opened, railways built, &c, &c, 10
! facilitate this production, must have added at
| least an equal sum 10 our enduring National
wealth. This Iron is not consumed nor spent;
| il mainly exists in the form of rails, chairs
| boilers, engines, &c, TO insure the production Of
| moreweath in 1870 and in future years. More
| over if the Tariifbe well let alone. shall pro-
! ducc still more Iron. ard cheaper Iron. in this
! and the following years. And what we are dong
! in Iron is but sample OF what we are DONG
| in WoOlens, in Silks. and almost every species
of Textile Fabrics, and in the great majority
| of what are known as Manufactures Ia our
| Judgment, we produced of these in 1869 at least
| Three Hundred Millions worth more than we
| had ever done prior to 1851, estimating the
average prices of the various products just equal
! to what they were ten years before.
| The EreninQ Post. OF course, has another view
| of the matter Taking as a text the statement
| of the Iron men of the Mahoning Valley, Ohio,
that itlcosts them an average of 500 to pro-
duce tun of Pig Iron, g more to freight it
to Pittsburgh, and $2i moro to sell it there,
| including taxes and four months interest dis
Al. Il,
| 1864. they find that their net profit on the
| Iron is 81 per tun, which includes interest on
capital, risk, and contingencies. And they
reasonably submit that this is not eXorbitant.
| The Post insists that this proves:
81" That 1t is 70 make iron in the Mahoning
| Valley The cost OF making 1t elsewhere. in the
thracite regions Of Pennsylvania been shown by Mr.
Abram s. Hewitt MT D. A. Wells. and.other high author
tiles not to exceed Sl at most SIC. tun II be
imported from other countries, apart from duties, for
about SIS tun. THIS. then. represents the amount OF
capital and labor which this nation ought 20 invest
each of the principal material its industries require
All beyond this is sheer waste. theresult OF monopoly
! tariff" ~
| A memorial Just submitted to Congress by
| the managers of the thirty-seven furnaces To-
Gated in the Lehigh, Schuylkill, and Susque
| hanna regions of Pennsylvania-that is, the
| Anthracite region-states the average cost OF
making Pig Iron in that busy region at
s29 16-100 in the year 1868. and 500 G3-l0O in
| the first six months OF 1869. Their books are
not vet balanced for the last six months; but
they are confident that it cannot vary essen
rally from that of the former. The men who
unite in this statement make 10000 tuns Of
Pig Iron per annum, and some of them are
personally known to US as OF unimpeachable
character Most of their furnaces are large and
OF the most improved construction Ore and Coal
| are abundant III their neighborho0d; and they
have created the means of bringing them cheaply
together by means of railroads, tramways iron
bridges across deep, wide valleys, &c, sc. If
Anthracite Iron is or can be made cheap IN
this country, they can and do 40 make it, Yet
| they testify that it costs them go GS-l0) which
is barely s. cents per tun less than the $50 $1,000
which the Mahoning Valley Iron men certify
to he the cost of their Pig Iron made with
BituminOus Coal. IL is not true, then, that
anything would be gained by stopping tho
| production of Pig Iron with Bituminous Coal
in the West and relying exclusively on its
manufacture in the East with Anthracite Coal
on the contrary, the West must pay more for
Iron made in the Anthracite region than it
now pays for that it makes at home.
Equally mistaken would be the policy of
breaking down the production in this country
altogether, and relying on importations from
Europe. Unless all experience he delnsive. an
/ e.