Daily Republican., 1882-11-20
IRON AND STEEL.
HILLS To BE RHUTTOWR THE
WEST-CHAEGES IL The
TARIFF.

i CHICAGO, Nov. ia break In the
price OF steel rails. The News will
say tomorrow, caused chiefly by the
bessemer Company, of Scranton, which
mas Quoted them at $40 o ton, has
nrought matters to focus, and the
Joliet Iron and Steel Com pany is re-
ported to have determined to close
9own its works on or before Deem
Der 1st.
Tho same stop ia contemplated nv
the North Chicago Rolling Mills Com
pany, oy tDe St. Louis Steel Works and
Dy other corporations interested In the
bessemer patents. The president Of
tne chicago company is the authority
tnat the works on the north side will be
smut down by December Is, while the
Union Mills NAV be run some time
longer. This, however, will depend
upon reaction in the price of rails to
the advantage of the manufacturers.
The ostenstble reasons given by the
joliet managers are that a majority of
the new CONGRESS- will he hostile to tie
existing tariff on steel rails, and the
general public sentiment that the Gus.
tom dues mnst he reduced. Any
deduction in the tariff at present prices,
they say, would cause them tn run at
q heavier less than they are staggering
under: In the long struggle from 1878
TO 1879 the company kept running at o
loss mainly TO prevent distress from
overtakiDg their employees until they
rallied: This time they propose to take
in sail early enough to obviate loss Of
anything beyond interest on capital,
The result will be the enforced idleness
OF several thousand employees at the
be0inning Of the winter.
0. B. Potter, President Of the North
Chicago Rolling Mill Company was
questioned touching the situation
which the manufacturers consider 80
menaoing.
do you anticipate Congressional
action hostile to your interests ?" he
was asked
II have no expectation that any de.
cisive result will be reached BY the
present Congress. Still there is q gen.
eral impression that the tariff ON steel
rails can be reduced without doing
anything more damaging than reduc-
ing the profits of the Bessemer steel
manufacturers'. This impression Is
erroneous. 1 know that the North
Side works cannot make steel rails for
S42 ton or SAT a ton, and when the
time comes that we can't get more than
A2 for them, then the wheels will be
stopped."
what has caused the break in the
prices ?"
'rhe Scranton company lowered its
rates. The demand has been very light
for months. There mas been little rail.
road building The result has been an
diminutiOn of orders. A year
ago all the important companies had
orders enough to keep them husy for
nine months. This year everything can
be cleared up in less than sixty days. |
Contrary to the general belief there Is
no com bination among the eleven Bes- !
semer mills in this country to sustain !,
prices.
Congressman Hewitt seems to be en- |
the side OF lower tariff"
"a regiment of men talking cannot !
undo the mischief done by the miscon-
ception Of what Mr. Hewitt meant
when he said that the Harrisburg
Company had realized 79 per cent. pro-
lit. That estimate was made on the ba.
IFS Of its alleged capital of 1900, 900,
is profits being 81, 800, 900. The fact is,
,owevpr that the company employed
Ibout So, ono, 900 capital. For two years
,ast we have all done an excellent bus
ness. That period of prosperity how
ver, followed on the teels Of seven
ears of losses which caused the bank.
uptcy of several of the companies"