Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1870-07-02
THE PIG IRON QUESTION.
Comparative Cost OF Manufacture In
the southw west and the Northwest.
Letter OF Colonel George r. Lewis TO
Hon. Daniel j. Morrcil, Chairman
Of Committee ON Manufactures.
CLARsvILLE, Tenn, June q.

non. IL. j. MOrrell, Washington, IL. ID:
SIR-I have just received from n
friend the Iron Age of the Goth ult.,
which contains a report presented by
you as Chairman of the Committee
on Manufactures upon the cost of
iron.
In this report you have perverted
the meaning of that portion of Com
missioner Wells statement, wherein
lie quotes my letter to Colonel s. ID.
Morgan, of date September 2, 1860.
Your report says:
"The committee now proceed to an
examination of the authorities and
figures cited by the Commissioner
He quotes Mr.. George II. Lewis, as
authority for the statement that 'pig
iron can be made and delivered i'm
Nashville, at u cost of $40 per ton,"
and says lie ais endorsed as one of the
most intelligent and experienced iron
manufacturers of the Southwest" ~
The committee find, upon investiga-
ton, that neither the figures nor the
reputation as all iron manufacturer
of Mr.. Lewis are entitled to the con-
sideration the Commissioner has ac-
corded to them. Mr.. Lewis has had
experience as an iron manufactures,
but not even his warmest eulogist
will assert that he has been success
fut manufacturer. The committee
find that he has been the very reverse
of successful. Next, they find that,
when Mr.. Lewis made the estimate
which the Commissioner quotes SO
prominently, he had purchased, or
was about to purchase, some iron and
coal lands on or near the Nashville
& Chattanooga Railroad, and greatly
desired to secure the cooperation of
capitalists i'm their development. OF
course he made as favorable estimate
as possible, and advertised in the
newspapers. Even then, however,
it is manifest that he referred to stone
coal iron, and your committee would
. not do him the injustice to suppose
that he meynt TO create the impress
sion that charcoal iron can be pro-
duced on the line of the Nashville &
Chattanooga Railroad at $40 a ton.
Nor do they believe that he conceived
1t possible to make even stone coal
iron in any other locality than the
one he was specially interested in
commencing to the attention of cap
italists as cheaply as $40 a ton, in
Guiding freight TO Nashville.
But are his estimates--fOr they are
nothing else reliable? Can pig iron
of any quality whatever be made i'm
Tennessee and delivered at Nashville
for $40 ton? On this point the tes-
timony of successful manufacturers
of pig iron in that State is the only
evidence that should be received, es-
| 10 hxy
that of gentleman not engaged in
iron manufacture. Messrs. Hillman,
Brothers & Sons, iron manufacturers
of long experience in Tennessee, and
gentlemen of high standing for in
tegrity and business capacity, under
date of Nashville, January z, 1870,
write as follows. They speak of char
coal:
ave have been running but one
. furnace since the war, and, as we have
always done, have been careful to
know what it has cost us to make pig
iron. This furnace has the ore almost
at its mouth, and a railroad to the
river, two and half miles. Our pig
iron on the bank of the umberland
river costs us no one year less than
from S33 to S35. This is reliable, and
we do not believe there is any estab-
lishment in this whole section that
is making pig iron for less, or that
has any more favorable location"
This statement is supported by the
!. testimony of another iron firm OF
, high standing in Nashville. Their
letter is of SO important character
that your committee give it entire:
"NASHvILIE Jan. 90, 1870.
"DEAR SIR--We are in receipt OF
| your favor of late date, requesting q
statement of the actual cost of pro-
duction per ton of cold blast charcoal
! pig metal i'm this section. After care
full examination of the accounts kept
} at the furnace of the various expens.
es connected with the manufacture
, of pig metal, and transportation ia
the shipping point on the river bank
four miles from the furnace, we esti-
mate the cost per ton at $35 65.. This
does not include interest on capital
invested, wear and tear, etc. Oul
statement is based upon actual oper.
n ations, while that of Mr.. Lewis, as
IL appears in Commissioner Wells
report, Is on estimates, and those, too
. made up for field in which he has
no experience.
Mr.. Lewis practical knowledge o
the iron business was all acquired al
our Cumberland Iron Works, and 6
: furnace near by. In the year 1850
, Mr.. Lewis was manager Of the Cum
berland Iron Works, and in that yeai
: 1t cost us about $50 per ton to place
: IA ton of metal on the river. We
were running two furnaces, forge
S and rolling mill, with an annual.pro
e duction of S30O00 value. Our bust
ness was well organized on a basis
;, that had the advantage of over thirty
!, years experience; we owned foul
!. hundred and twenty-five negroes
= many of them skilled mechanics
supplies were lower, and labor cheap
y er, and vastly more efficient than al
present, while the coalings and ore
banks, and the coal and ore teams
were worked seven days In the week
thus lesscuing, IN still greater tie
gree, every item Of consumption and
management. With all these advant-
ages, and on n larger production than
we have been able to achieve since
L the war, the cost was about thirty
: dollars per ton of metal under Mr.
Lewis management. Since then,
Mr.. Lewis has been engaged In rail
roading and mining for coal, but has
had, we think, no connection with
y the iron business. We protest that
: his estimates should not receive cur
rency, much less be adopted as au.
thorities in report of such import
ance as that of Commissioners Wells,
TO the injury of one of the greatest
producing interests OF the country.
Very respectfully,
WooDs, HEATMAN x Co.
The committee come next To the
testimony of Mr.. Waterhouse, of st.
Louis, Missouri, rs produced by the
Commissioner. Not crediting his