New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-04-04
ENGLISH OR AuERIc4N STEEL RAILs.

Ii has been freely asserted for day or two among
iron dealers that William H. Vanderbilt has recently
made very heavy purchase of steel rails
in England, the amount being placed as
high as 10 900 tons; aud 1t IS further said
that The price paid for Them delivered, is nearly 30
per cent greater than the price at which Bes,emer
rails of American manufacture are offered 10
him. The American mills now crowded
with work, and it has been suggested
that Mr.. Vanderbilt needed the rails at once.
But on the other hand, 1t is urged that this is
hardly an adequate reason for going abroad with
such an order. as orr mills would have run night
and day TO I'll it rather than the trade leave
the country.
Again. il is said that Mr.. VanderbIlTs experience
has demonstrated that English rails are much
more durable, that be- considers it economy to use
them even at their greater cost This our manufac-
turers deny They claim that all the tests di-proyc
it. Some of tie dealers assert that if any
experience in the use of American rails
has been unsatisfactory, the rails tried were either
those made IN the early days Of our manu-
featuring. while the processes were yet IN
complete, or they were rails made of inferior
material The track Of one important road l.
laid with one rail OF american Bcs,cmcr and the
other Of English steel, and after years Of ser
vice there is no ptrceptIble difference between the
two as regards wear Many of the trunk lines
which do the largest carrying trade of the country
use the American rail exclusively. IL IS asserted
that OIL Mr.. VanderbllP5 own road there are Amerl-
can rails which have been laid for nine years and
mr., vet in far condition. IN fact foreign rails have
been virtually ont of our market, 90 that Che
tire importations last yea- amounted 20 bat few
hundred tons.
According to the rlmors on the street M Wander
hills new steel is guaranteed for ten years The
same guarantee would nave bcen given by American
manufacturers fully as responsible the English
firms if they bad been asked TO do So
and q guarantee by home could be
enforced quite "a readily 10 say the least
Under these conditions higher price might have
been asked, hut il is safe TO affirm that with the
same guarantee American stock could have been
furnished for s. q ton less than the foreign
rails actual cost; say for $50, as against
Sj5 Altogether tho IRON arc not thor
ourhy pleased with the situation. They
recall the fact that when England held "a monopoly
of the B-ssenev products steel rails cost : 90
ton and now American rails are offered 10 $40. If
England can still compete with us in own
markets these rates, with the duty to overcome
the fact shows what enormous profits she made out
of our trade while she had the opportunity to
practice her exactions. 1t shows too the depressed
state Of her industry when steel rails are sold
at home for So. On the other hand IT,
% SEEMS to be- generally ACKNOWLEDGED, our
own rails ale a. good. and cheaper than the
imported article, the conduct of Mr.. Vanderbilt
who certainly owes something to American indus
try is iuexplcable. The sum of 5000, 900 thrown
M once into the iron trade, would DC not at all III
considerable ~ help toward That revival Of bIs-
ness Tor which the couatry is looking and longing