Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-11-05

Total. .35,1j9
At the rate of 1860, SiS.
Increase in cost OF iron

I
1--WE have here an expenditure, caused
| by the increased cost Of rails alone, Of
| Sl0S, 100000; to return 7 per cent invest
ment. a perpetual tax Of S7,GO0,OO0 must
be paid by the traffic done over these
| roads"
But this is in the item of rails alone.
All other iron used in building and
equipping roads would swell the amount
to nearly 200 tons per mile Thus,
though the quantity of iron used in rail
roads is probably less than 200 tons to
the mile, its cost doubtless exceeds
$4,000 per mile at the prices Of 1872,
as compared with $4,000 at the prices
Of 1860. In other words, the entire
cost of iron used in roads built since
1868 has probably been S550,000, 900,
and at least S2l6,0 100000 more than it
would have been at the prices of 1860;
so that the perpetual tax required to
pay interest on the increased cost of
roads is over fifteen millions yearly.
Here there is no account made Of in
creased cost of repairing.
This tax" the argument goes on.
chose must pay who travel or ship freight
over the railroads; and the farmers could
better afford to pay out of their own peck
cts the wages paid by every IRON establish
ment i'll the country than to bear their
share Of CHS burden. For fifty millions is
III - I, e
penSe Of all the railroads. A reduction of
one-siXth in the cost Of transporting pro-
ducts Of the farm, or ten cents per hundred
weight, would be worth more than seventy
millions a year in the cash value of farm
products, and one thousand millions in the
actual value of FARMS
This state of affairs is the result, as
we intimatcd, of legislation. The high
price Of iron, which has necessitated
the raising of freight rates is the result
Of the protective tariff. On this point
Mr.. Grosvenor argues:
"Until within the present year, there was
no room for dispute about it; during the
year since 1860 we could have imported
iron, but for the tariff, at cost far below
the price actually paid either to importers
or American makers. During twelve years,
not iron only, but thousands of other arti-
cles have thus been constantly rendered
more costly by means of duties, and the eff
feet has been to artificially raise the cost of
living, OF labor, of materials, Of production,
and the whole scale Of prices and values.
Hence the effect Of the tariff has been not
only to raise the prices at which product
may be temporarily Sold but in many cases
to raise even more the cost at which its
production in this country is possible. In
SpectiOn of census reports shows that in
many important branches of manufacture
the cost Of materials and Of labor has in
creased far more than the value of pro-
ducts, and vet the wages of labor have not
increased as much as the cost of living.
These effects of the tariff continue, so that,
even though the price of iron abroad has
risen temporarily higher than its price here,
and small quantity is exported, neverhe-
less il is in consequence of the tariff that
we are no longer able to produce iron as
cheaplv as we did formerly. Under its
operation, high instead of low rates for ma
terialS have been established, and high in
stead of low valuations for mines: higher
wages for labor have been rendered neressa-
ry by the greater cost Of living; transporta-
ton Of fuel and other materials has been
rendered more cls5ly; furnaces, mills, and
machinery costing far more than the same
would cost in 1850, have been put in opera
tiOn.
at seems certainly within bounds to say.
inyiew OF these facts, that the whole cost
of building and operating railroads must
have increased at least 30 per cent. since
1860; that one-third Of the entire cost Of
operating railroads at this time is due to