New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-05-02

foreign made and homemade IRON ~ VIC po'ho
most disadvantageous to the latter. They say
"Scotch Pig OF New-Yorl., free OF duty, costs
$50 much per tun; American Pig OF Ike
Equality. so much; Scotch Pig is cheaper by
"the difference between these rates" But the
Great hulk of our American Iron is made at
points far inland-in fact, west OF the Ale
eanies-and this preponderaDce OF inland pro-
duction is steadily increasing. Homemade
Iron is as cheap at Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago,
Milwaukee. st. Louis, as at New York; whereas
foreign Iron would there cost 80 to $40 per
tun more than here; and this difference is
overlooked in Mr.. Atkinson's and kindred cal
culations. Do not forget that foreign-made
Iron may be S. per tun cheaper (apart from
duty in New-York, yet not 81 per tun cheaper
where most of our people need and use 1t.
ILL., But, with Pig Iron equally cheap (or
dear) in this country and Great Britain, the
cheaper labor and capital of the older coun-
try would still enable her to underscll us in
Steel, in Bars, in Iron Steamships Nay; the
naked fact that she has "use and wont" on
her side tells heavily against our artisans. Her
workshops confront and are in intimate commu-
nication with customers throughout the world;
ours have their customers to seek and secure.
An invoice of British Steel will sell higher,
the world over, than one OF equally good
American Steel, because the former has an es-
tablished reputation which ours has yet to
achieve And this il the work of many years.
". Nix Atkinson urges that Ore, Coal and
Limestone, are procured in this country with
greater facility hence at less cost, than in
Great Britain. In particular places, this is
true; in others, the reverse is true Great
Britain is now so chcckered with railroads and
canals that she can concentrate materials and
combine ores in the average cheaper than we
can.
V. Mr.. A. would sacrifice the producers OF
Pig Iron on the assumption that they are few.
We made Two Millions of tuns last year,
worth at least Sixty Millions of Dollars. We
estimate that one hundred thousand men, sup
porting families numbering at least Half
Million persons, were employed in construct
ing or altering furnaces, opening mines, dig
ging and transporting ore, coal, and limestone,
cutting timber and burning charcoal, and from
these materials smelling Pig lron Add those
who build or furnish dwellings, grow food and
make clothes for these iron makers, and not
less than One Million of our people draw their
subsistence from this industry And 1t seems
to us the interest not of q class or section,
but of the whole American People, that IRON
smelling shall be encouraged and rapidly ex-
tended. so that we shall make at least Four
Millions of tuns of Pig Iron in 1876 (the cen
tenary of our political independence instead
of less than Two Millions in 1871. We are
sure tbs is the road to abundant, good and
cheap Iron.
VI Let us indicate the point where our views
differ radically from Mr.. AS If the Pig Iron
we need could be bought of Great Britain for
feacer dollars than it would cost if made at
home, he holds that demonstration that the
foreign Iron is the cheaper. We cannot so
regard it. We hold that the homemade Iron
would in good part be paid for with Timber.
Charcoal, Fruits, Vegetables, SC, &c, which
would not be worth half so much to their
producers if our furnaces and workshops were
in Europe. This writer spent two years of his
boyhood in clearing land-that is, in cutting
down and burning up trees-in Vermont, within
thirty miles of the Champlain ore-beds. Had
we then been making our own Iron, the tim
Der thus destroyed would have been made
into charcoal for iron furnaces, and the land !
would have been cleared without cost. You
cannot erect q furnace or start factory in |
any rural district of our country without in
creasing the value of land. timber, ore, coal,
water-power, &C., &c, all around it. This
value, thus created by making our own Metals,
Wares, and Fabrics, has no place in Mr. At
kinsons calculations.
We know that a given quantity of Labor
will produce as much Pig Iron IN this country
as in Great Britain (Mr. A. says morc). We
know that food is produced as cheaply here
as there. We know that the cost of taking
the food from our farmers to the British IRON
makers and bringing their product hither is
at least equal to the first cost Of the Food
and Iron. We know that. If the fOOd-growers
and iron-makers shall be brought into close
neighborhood, the enormous cost of exchang-
ing their products across an ocean and half a
continent will mainly be saved. In other
words, there will be more Iron and more Food
to divide between their producers respectively.
So we shall do our best to bring the producers
of Food, Metals, and Fabrics, nearer and nearer
each other, being well assured that this is best
for our country, best for Labor, and con-
ducivc to the permanent well-being of maA
kind.