Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-04-10
THE MANUFACTURE or IRON.
The Advantages of Martinsburg.

GAuttDIt INoDNIitD IN dbOUl
to be undertaken in good earnest, it
may be interesting to our readers to
present the several points of advan-
tage possessed by this county as an
iron manufacturing centre over the
Pennsylvania region, the great iron
producing State of this country. From
the Reading Eagle we take the fol-
lowing statistics of the cost of iron
manufacture at that place, perhaps
the most central and prominent point
of that industry in the State of Penn
sylvania. 1t says:
An accurate account demon
strates that the average of the past
twenty years shows that it requires
PIT tons of ore, 2 tons;of coal and 1-04
tons of limestone to produce one ton
of pig iron.
As the prices of the above articles
are in the market, together with the
cost of transportation, the labor at the
furnace and the interest on capital in
vested, the cost to produce pig metal
Will De as I0llOWS.
In 1851, the cost of a ton of pig to
| the producer was $3.50, as follows /:
1918 for ore, $50 for coal, SO cents
for limestone, 1922 for labor :. gener-
al contingencies S1.65, and interest
$1.05.
In 1874, pig metal per ton to the
producer cost S33.47, as follows: for
ore $1475, for coal $50, for lime
stone S2.03, and for labor $40.
The gentleman after producing the
above figures said that there are many
| reasons why the manufacture of iron
| in Pennsylvania at this time is not
| profitable. Take for instance the price
of ore. The figures had swollen from
AIS to S14.75 for sufficient quanti-
| ty to make tone ofpig metal. To do
| the same work, coal had advanced
from 1910 its price in 1850, to $3.50,
while labor in 1874 was actually less
paid than it was in 1872, and in 1870
it was only S1.37 more than it was in
| 1850.
'The above figures plainly show
that it is not the price of labor that
| runs up the first actual cost of pig
iron to the producer.
On the contrary, labor is far less
compensated, in comparison to the
| advance in coal, ore and tranSporta-
ton"
Thus it will be seen that from 1850
| to 1874 iron ore has advanced in Penn
sylvania from 1915 to S14.75, and to
produce ton of pig metal, coal from
$40 to 7.90,and labor in proportion,
so that at this date, unless iron is
very high, the great furnaces of Penn
sylvania must stand idle or go to de-
cay for want of profitable use. The
| reasons for this condition Of affairs
are very apparent. For fifty years
the mineral resources of our great sis
ter State have been taxed to their ut
| termost to meet the demands of the
numberless furnaces thathaye sprung
up on every hand, and the depos-
| its of minerals-never equal to our
own either as to quality or quantity
have become, in great measure, eX-
| hausted SO that all the articles which
enter into the manufacture of iron
have to be transported from 100 to 800
miles, and the combinations of labor
have increased its value and decreas-
ed its stability and usefulness. An
| other and very important reason, per-
haps, for this decrease of resource and
consequent increase of cost, is the
crowding out of individual interest
and enterprise and the absorption of a
large number of these industries by
gigantic corporations, such as the
Philadelphia and Reading Coal and
Iron Company, etc. This individual
capital and enterprise is what is wan
| ted here, and it is looking in this di-
rection. And if a fair presentation
of the Inducements offered 10y thisre-
| gion are made, it is bound to come.
| Let us for a moment see how a fair
| statement of the cost of iron manu-
factme here compares with that TAX
EN- from the Reading Eagle, one of
the most prominent papers of central
Pennsylvania and quoted above. This
statement isprepared bya gentleman
who is well-posted upon these matters
and may be relied on as correct, and
is easy of verification
Two Tons Of Iron ore at............... $500
Coal ..................... 5 50
lllDstOue.. ..+.....'.'..s-....s.sss..., o.
Labor. $50
Interest on ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 2 0t
Si6.50
Thus we find that iron Of superb
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