Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-09-13
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The Iron Convention.

WEDNESDAY EvEN'a. SEPT. Ia. 1854.
The Iron Convention.
The iron and steel men of the country
are meeting in convention at CressOn, and
in that high atmosphere at this cool sea
son of the year their deliberations ought
to be calm, refreshing and unanimous.
Perhaps, however, they may be other
wise. There is no atmosphere and DO
temperature that can keep men cool who
are in pursuit of riches when the same
breeze refuses to blow with equal kind
ness upon all the assembly. Our iron
and steel friends are together for an
avowedly selfish purpose. They aim 10
consider how to benefit themselves. They
propose to take care of number one.
They are not philanthrOpically inclined.
Their fellowmen, for this occasion at
least, must be regarded as their prey.
They desire to make the manufacture of
iron and steel profitable to themselves.
and to this end are Of the opinion that
the country ought to he taxed for their
benefit. They are unanimous for tariff
duty upon their product; and they
sustain their claim by argu
ments which are sometimes sound
and sometimes otherwise. The
soundness of their position is that
the manufacture of iron could not con
tinue in this country without duty
and that the manufacture of iron with
in the country is essential to its prosper
ity. In these assumptions they are
right. 1t would never do for the nation
to depend upon foreign nations for its
supply Of manufactured iron, both be-
cause its welfare requires it to he indie
pendent in this regard, and because its
prosperity demands that its supplies o.
raw material and of labor shall be made
profitable.
But it is questionable whether the
CressOn convention will have the wis
dom to make the duty it demands no
greater than the necessity of the case re
quires. l. is certain that the general
public will look with distrust upon the
opinion it expresses as to the rate of
duty needed to keep our manufactures
going. There are some iron men, but Il
minority probably, who believe that the
iron interest could prosper with Il
smaller duty than the present and
many Of these will be deferred from ex
pressing this opinion through apprehen-
sion that the public will not give them
credit for the honesty of their view, but
will at once conclude that if they think:
that the duty can be reduced in a smaller
measure it can safely be reduced in i,
larger measure without destroying the
iron industry. We do not, therefore,
look to see the Cresson convention con
senting to a lessening of duties, how.
ever much in honesty they ought tU
agree to a moderate reduction.
The proceedings, however, are likely
TO make manifest the irreconcilable con
flict between the iron and steel manu-
facturers. They cannot he very happy
family together in such a gathering, he
cause their interests are not alike. To
he unanimous the iron and steel people
should meet apart or the Bessener
steel people, al least, should enjoy their
close corporation to themselves. There
are dozen great manufactures OF Bes
semer, which are bound together with
works of steel and self.interast. They
have been having and are still having a
glorious harvest ut the expense Of the
iron men in particular and tie country
in general. They have a higher duty
protecting their product than that on
iron, and while it costs them less to
make it, they get more for it. The
makers of iron rails have been compelled
to close their mills by the new industry,
which now threatens TO advance into the
field Of the bar iron manufacturers, as
their capacity for the supply of rails be-
gins to run ahead of the demand. The
iron men look at them :sskance first in
envy of their big profits and then i'll fear
of their competition and rs they are
likely to outnumber the steel representa-.
tives at CressOn the latter will probably
find the mountain atmosphere remark
ably cool even for this remarkably cold
season.
So, too, should the iron ore men who
We observe are poking up their heads
aud demanding IN impost upon foreign
iron ore. A less legitimate demand
could not not be made. Raw material
ought to enter our ports free, under any
reasonable theory of a tariff. If iron
ore cannot he dug out of the land at our
doors cheaply enough to defy the COM
petition of ores brought from other con-
tinents, then our ores ought to stay in
the soil until they become valuable
enough to take out. This resource of
the country will always be there to be
made available when it is wanted and
it would be Il shame to tax the
people to pu value upon what may
be at present as valueless as dirt. But
especially is it brazen to ask duty on
iron ore when it is sold on the shores Of
Lake Superior at eight dollars ton to be
carried thence to distant furnaces at
an additional cost of several dollars ::
ton and when it is sent over the coun
try from Lake Champlain starting with
a cost of five dollars a ton and when IL
goes from Iron Mountain, at a still
greater initial cost, to far OFF places.
Good ores are shown by these figures to