Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-06-14
THE IRON INTEREST.

THE IRON INTEREST.
The Producing Capacity Of Georgis
Tennessee and Alabama.
The Comparative Cost OF Making Ir0l
Here and Elsewhere-TheI Iron Scep
ter to Pass to the South.
II McMINNvILLE, May %, 1878Gov
Jno. c. Brown, President of the At
lanta Gonvention-Dear Sir: | wa
induced by friends to attend the con
vention lately held in Atlanta, Ca, t.
introduce for further consideration Of
its members a report showing the eff
feet Canal to the Sea" would have
upon the iron and coal interest Of
Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, and
as soon as practicable after the organ
ization of the convention, / introduced
resolution asking the appointment
by the President of special commit
tee of three, to report upon these OBJ
jects. The Committee on Business,
to whom my resolution was referred,
did not consider it; consequently at
the solicitation of several members of
the Convention from Kentucky and
Tennessee, l address your Excellency
this letter embracing such facts as
presumed committee would report to
the convention.
In September, 1869, had the honor
to address letter to Col. j. d, Nor
gan, an. honored citizen of Nashville.
in which | stated that Tennessee, Geor-
gia and Alabama, would become the
Wales of America, in the manufacture
Of pig iron, in consequence of the low
cost of production, and made an
estimate of the cost Of ton of pig iron
in these States, which was as follows !:
Tons of Ore at 90
so Bushels of Coal at 40
superintendent and labor per ton..-4 90
Wear and tare per rton..-...-..-............-.. 80
interest per %
lnc1dentals per ton n..........-.....--......-. so
Total. SIG 90
1t is gratifying to me, sir, to be able
to state that my estimate made four
years ago, has been realized. that pig
iron is now being made in these States
at less than my estimated cost, and it is
still more gratifying to me to assert as
the facts warrant me to do, that these
States, Tennessee, Georgia and Ala
bama, are now manufacturing pig iron
at less cost than any other State,
place or country known to the busi-
ness.
The.actual average cost of ton of
pig iron, in favorable localities, in
Central Pennsylvania, as stated by w.
K. S. Baker, Secretary and Treasurer
of the Eastern Iron Mems Association,
is S29,65.
The cost of a ton of pig iron in She
mango Valley, Pennsylvania and
Youngstown, Ohio, as stated by /.
q. Butler, tr., Esq, .S3l 80
The cost of a ton of pig iron in Pitts
burgh 90
The cost of ton of pig iron in Stuben-
NliIe Ohlo, ls-.--- -.--. 5i W
Leuis is............... re ............-s2 O5
The cost of a ton of pig iron in Great
Britain, in gold, ............ 90
The cost ofa ton of pigiron in India,
The cost of a ton of iron in Georgia,
Tennessee and Alabama, is less than l6 90
The cause of the cheapness of pro-
duction here as compared with the
North and East is of easy solution.
There, the material which enters into
the make of iron-coal and iron ore are
separated several hundred miles, and
require river, lake and railroad trans
portation, and frequent handling to
bring them together; here, coal and
iron ore, both of superior quality, lie
in close proximity, sometimes in the
same mountain, the one above the
other. For instance, the manufac-
turers of pig-iron in Pittsburg brin gore
from the Lake Superior iron region,
first by rail to Marquette twelve miles,
thence by lake several hundred miles
to Cleveland. Ohio, thence by rail over
130 miles to Pittsburgh, making the
cost of ore alone for ton of iron SIG.
At the lockwood furnace in Roane
county, Tennessee, tram-way half
a mile long transports both coal and
ore to the furnace, the cost of the ore
for ton of iron is 50. What then
can prevent these States from soon be-
coming the Wales of America? No
thing but the want ofwater communi-
cation with the sea,-the great West
and those inland sea-" bounding one
third the union in the North
Thirty years ago the worlds product
of pig iron annually was 3, 100000 tons,
now it is 100000 tons. Then the
products of Great Britain was 1,000,-
900 tons, now it is 100000. Then the
production of the United States was
2S5,000 tons, now it is 2,250,000 tons.
Thirty years hence the ratio of increas-
ed production being the same as the
past thirty, (of course 1t will be much I!
greater) the annual pig iron product of
the world will be $4,000, 900 tons, that |
of Great Britain 24,000000 tons, and |
that of the United States 1S,000,000 !
tons. But from the mutterings we |
hear from Great Britain-From Eng |
land-it is apparent that she has reach
ed the topmost round in the ladder of |
prosperity in the production of iron.
That which enters into the make of pig
iron, coal and iron ore, is being exhaus-
ted so rapidly that her statesmen are
alarmed for the future in regard to
coal, and a political economist has
said-"We may conclude the time is
not far distant when England must
surrender to her competitors many of
the industries of which she has hith-
erto enjoyed a practical monopoly
Coal may be said to be the nations
and so long as it remained
abundant and cheap there was practi-
cally no limit to the expansion of its
industries but with coal as now,
scarce and dear in proportion to the
the British manufacturer
finds himself placed at a serious dis
With cheap production he
could supply three-fourths of the
worlds markets, but as his wares in
crease in cost, competition is encourag-
ed which might not otherwise have
been possible. Dear coal means high
prices in every department of trade.
If. the present scarcity of coal in Great
Britain is due to the fact that its mines
are no longer able to yield what is
needed to carry on its great industries,
those industries must languish, and of
these, iron manufacture is the surest
and most seriously effected" What
are the facts?
The coal mines of Great Britain
have reached the maximum of their