The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1873-10-22

Condition of Things at Pittsburgh
Effects Of the Stringency al Phila'
dcIphia.
A correspondent Of the Iron Age
writing from Pittsburgh, speaks thus IN
regard TO The industries at that place:
The iron trade, and our manufacturers
generally, are crippled Tor want oil. funds,
and It Is feared, II money continues to
work as close as 1t is working at present,
that many of them will be obliged to sus.
mend operations in consequence within
The next week or two. Some have re-
luced tho number Of their workmen al
ready, not Tor want OF work, but because
they are apprehensiye that they might not
be able 10 raise money enough to pay
them. This Is the great cause Of the
falling Of in the demand for pig iron, and,
as already stated, so long as financial mat.
tiers continue In the present unsettled and
unsatisfactory condition, no Improvement
need be looked Tor. In regard TO prices II
10 difficult TO say much, as there have
been no transactions deserving OF the
name within the past week. 1t is prob
able that cash buyer could buy consid-
erably better than recent quoted rates
but cash buyers, as the saying Is, are few
aud far between. However, even II there
was demand, sellers can see no induce
ment 10 sell on time, and 1t Is to be pre-
sumed that they prefer carrying their
product TO paper, which in the present
condition OF affairs, cannot be made avail.
able. Thus, as will be perceived, there
is no disposition on the part Of either
buyers or sellers to operate, and trade
10 consequence Is at dead lock.
Another correspondent writing from
Philadelphia speaks as follows in regard
TO the effects Of the stringency on the trade
in IRON:
The effects Of the stringency in none
larry affairs are now fully felt by our man.
utacturing and mercantile community.
Scarcely day passes but the news Of the
stoppage Of some works, or reduction in
wages Of hands, Is published. The situa-
ton with the iron industry Of this city and
Eastern Pennsylvania find, alter diligent
inquiry in the proper quarter, 10 be fairly
as follows: The wages in rolling mills
have been reduced, generally, from fifteen
to twenty per cent. Puddlers are now
paid at the rate Of six dollars per ton, the
reduction to mill hands being proportion.
ate as above. The sliding scale agreement
by which the puddler was paid twenty
five cents, or reduced that amount, for
each IS advance or reduction in the price
OF bars, has been done away, and, indeed,
expired by limitation with August oil the
present year. 1t was never lived up to,
as few compacts In the iron trade, wheth.
er between master and employe, or mas.
tiers themselves, ever have been, and the
present arrangement Is also only temper
AIRY. The mills are running day turn only,
except In few cases where speciality con.
tracts remain TO be filled. These remarks
apply TO bar and plate mills only, the rail
mills having been compelled to shut down
per force. With the blast furnaces labor
has been reduced full twenty-five per cent
and the companies which have not blown
out any Of their stacks arc piling up pig
metal at a fearful rate. This cannot Of
course last, and we must soon have a very
large number oil cold furnaces.