New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-12-28
THE yRON TRADE.

ter in the condition of the iron trade. a large
proportion of the furnaces and mills through
out the country remain idle, and few of the
manufacturers who have had the courage to
stand up against the pressure of the hard
times and run their WORKS find balance on
the profit side of their books, now
that they come to figure up the re-
suits of the years business. If they
have earned running expenses they count
themselves fortunate. The hopes entertained
last Summer of a revival of trade in the Fall
have proved Elusive, and the disappointed
ironmasters, tired of looking forward from
Spring to Fall and from Fall to Spring for the
long delayed renewal of activity, begin to fear
that there ia nothing in store for them
next year, and to cease to peer INTO
the future for encouraging signs. The
depression is felt in all the iron prodnc-
ing districts to a nearly equal degree. The
new industries of Alabama and Tennessee suf-
fer as severely as the old establishments of
PENNSYLVANIA. In Missouri and Illinois there
is said to be little more doing, but not
enough to make n noteworthy exception to the
prevailing rule. No upward turn in prices has
occurred. The market continues weak and is
oppressed by the large stocks at the furnaces
or in the hands of dealers. We hear of recent
sales of pig metal at the lowest figure known
for the past twenty years.
1t is cold comfort when a man is sick to tell
him that all his ncighbors down with the
same disease and yet it may console him
somewhat to reflect that he was no more care
less than the rest Of the community and Il
not therefore punished for an exceptional!
transgression of natures laws. Our iron men
have the consolation, such as ii is, of knowing
that if they sinned against the laws of trade
by ovcr-producing and by too great increase
of manufacturing facilities, their rivals in Eng
land, Scotland and Belgium did the same
thing and are suffering the same effects. The
iron trade in Europe is as fiat as it is in the
Unitcd States, and Just as hopeless of an early
rccupcratioD.
Is there any remedy for this state of thngs'
Patient waiting Will in the end bring about a
cure. There are too many furnaces aud rolling
mills in the country, but the time will come
and it is not very far off, we think-when there
will be work for all of them. a vigorous
young country like ours never stands still
long. 1t stops now and then to take
breath, but il starts on again with re-
newed energy. It's brcathing-spells may
last two or three years, but in the
life of nation a year Is only as
a minute in the shorter span of human exist
ence. Before the lose Of the century our
ferry millions OF inhabitants will have in
creased to sixty millions. For the added
twenty millions there must be thousands of
miles of railroads built, thousands of iron
bridges, thousands of iron ships, hundreds
of thousands of dwellings, shops, and
stores, all consuming iron in its countless
forms. Especially it is to be noted as fact full
of hope for the future that the use of iron in
architecture is as yet only in its infancy. But
for the present, our manufacturers have out
run the needs of the country. Production out
strips consumption. They miStoOk the spas
modic business activity that preceded the
panic Of 1878 for hcalthful, persistent energy.
Many now look despairingly upon their firelcss
furnace stacks, and others regard with no
more cheerful feelings the fast accommodating
piles of metal Wnsold, aud unstable at re-
muneiative prices. They must learn the
lesson of patient waiting. The steadily in
creasing wants of our growing popula-
ton will soon make better market.
Demand must one day oyertake supply, and
when it does it will he steady, sure demand
not born OF vicious currency, of a mania for
speculation, or of the building into Western
Wilderness Of railroads projected by sharpcrs
to plumber people who buy their bonds or
to make fat dividends for Credit Mobiler
construction companies.