The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-05-12
THE woKLD'sIKoN. srEELANDC COAL
some Interesting Comparisons and a
Despondent Deduction.

DthpOnutnt DeuuctAuas
BoSoh Advertiser.
Mr. Us. Jeans, Secretary Of the British
Iron Trade Association, has published his
report for 1882; so has Mr.. James NJ. STank,
the industrious and accurate Secretary Of
the American Iron and Steel Association.
The documents are %seasonable, also, mas.
much as there is reason for the belief that
on June l we shall have a strike among
the iron men Of the West. The report OF
Mr.. Jeans is specially important in show.
ing what is likely to be the effect OF the
Pittsburgh strike upon the iron and steel
market,
The output OF pig iron, in 1852, was
5,l7S, 100 net tons OF two thousand pounds
each for this country, against S,i9S,2Sl tons
OF 2240 pounds each for Great Britain,
4 ,l7O,057 metric tons for France, $4,000
metric tons for Belgium, and less in every
other country. In making pig iron Great
Britain is an easy leader; but it has ceased
to make as much as did the other countries
combined. On the contrary two Of these
countries, America and Germany, are get.
ting to be rivals OF Great Britain, and
many other countries begin to supply
themselves. In 1882 We produced LAYS, loo
net tons Of Bessemer rail, while Great
Britain produced 1926, 7S5 gross tons. Ger.
many employed eighty Be!semer con.
~verters, with a productive capacity OF about
!, 100000 tons, while We employed but
thirty.eight converters. Germany, then,
is about TO equal Great Britain in the man.
| ufacture OF steel, while We have surpassed
her.
The total output Of coal in 1882 was 49,
S62, GA gross tons, against l56,4O9,0T tons
in Great Britain, and q ,332,925 tons
in Germany, while France yielded
but 2O,25l ,53l tons, Belgium l7,4S5,0 900
tons, Auslro.H Hungary about the anne and
Russia about five million tons. Again,
England is an easy first, but America and
Germany are. making gigantic strides.
Germany and Great Britain, however,
have one vast advantage over rs
they can sell their surplus Of iron,
steel and coal where they please,
and we cannot. The reason IL in their
cheaper production as compared with ours.
Accordingly, they invade our iron market,
and In neutral markets we cannot dispute
their superiority. Our imports oil iron and
steel represented in 1882 over sixty-seven
million dollars, or nearly four times the
amount OF our iron and steel exports. Ger
many exports bars, wire, rails, sheets and
ingots. Great Britain exports all kinds oil
iron, steel and coal. 1t is beaten only In
wire rods aud possibly in steel rails.
Now then, if Germany and Great Britain
can induce us to take annually from sixty
to eighty million dollars worth Of their iron
and steel, b atiwould not happen If our
people failed to produce any, or put the
price too high? The stock on hand is very
great. We began the current calendar
year with 429, 604 tons OF pig iron. alone, or
nearly one.tenth Of all that is wanted fora
whole year. We shall not wantmuch, but
we do not depend IN Pittsburgh for the
entire supply.
Mr.. Jeans estimates the quantity OF iron
rails a tpresent in USE throughout the world
at twenty million tons, that oil steel rails al
15.S milliento He estimates the require
ments for the next two years, throughout
the world, at 2,434,0O tons for replacement,
for the following two years at :, S2O, GOO toms,
for the two subsequent years at 2077 500
tons, "and at the end Of six years l,225,O00
"toas per annum until tire end Of eight
"years, alter which the annual renewals
"wouId follow a diminishing ratio until TIT
"whole OF the iron rails in service had been
replaced by steel. OF steel rails the re
"newals are not likely, in the light Of
"present experience, to be Of any snbstan
"tial importance for at least 10 years to
"come." Surely, in the face Of such est
mates by an expert, and in view OF the
gigantic output noted above, we need not
wonder thatsteel rails wentdown in eleven
months from $3S a ton to $50, that orders
for common iron are solicited at l.s cent,
and that gray fsrge standard iron Is quoted
in Philadelphia at SIS so and SIS. We
approach the time when the world will
suffer from a glut OF steel, iron and coal.