Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-06-01
STEEL Raj 6 AGAIN.

EditOr ReGister:-Thc matter in controversy
between DR.. Hamlin and myself is simply
this; The doctor wrote an article claiming
high tariff taxes, $2s per ton as the cause OF
cheap steel rails, which you copied object
ed TO the soundness of this claim, and made
the assertion that scientific and mechanical
invention was the cause. The doctor, in re-
ply, fully agreed with my statement as to the
price OF steel in the past as well us at the pres
ent time. He gives as the lowest selling price
in 1865 in England, $50 per ton, ten years at
ter the invention of Bessemer, and during the
life OF the patents. At the present time he
gives the selling price i'll London as $50 per
ton. My statement was 5000 per ton in ls55,
before ithe process of Bessemer was in use,
giving my authority. also stated, "it Is now
possible to manufacture steel rails at nearly
the cost of pig iron, from Sl2 to SIS per ton"
Add to this cost the profit of the manutactur-
err, the cost OF selling in the London market,
etc, and it will bring the amount so close to
the price he has given,viz $50, that the words
! use "nearly the cost" can easily bridge the
difference. SO far, then, he confirms my posi-
ton. further stated that the doctor, in max
ing the claim that high tariff was the cause
OF cheap steel rails, was in gross error. The
question to be settled then, is, chdt is the cause
OF the heavy decline in the price OF steel rails?
and propose to hold strictly to this ques-
ton. will t1y to make my position so plain
that every tairminded reader will sustain me.
In reading "tacts from history" / find a long
list OF cases analogous to the one in contro-
versy. y massachusetts born Yankee, Eli
Whitney, living at the time in Georgia, by Il
simple piece OF mechanism, the cotton gin,
revoutioniZed the cotton industries of the
world. HIS gin is used in all countries where
ever the staple is grown Cotton, which re-
quircd IL hand II day to clean a pound, was
better prepared tor market at the rate of 800
pounds per day per hand. individuals We're
suddenly raised TO wealth and responsibility,
debts paid Off, capital increased, lands trip
pied in value under the influence of this in
Vention (see Prot Olmstead's Life OF Whit
ney). Robert Fulton declared that Arkwright
Watt and Whitney were the three men who
had done the most tor mankind OF any OF their
contemporaries. These men are not the only
inventors and benefactOrs of mankind. The
roll is IL long one. The men who made posi-.
bic the steamboat, the locomotive, the reaper
and mower, rotary printing press, planning
and why should Bessemer and his co-labor-
ers, who brought about the transition from the
age OF iron to that of steel, be left out of this
grand catalogue of the worlds benefactors?
H. in calling the roll, these names are found,
and SIS per ton taxes lett out, II will certainly
justify me i'll the claim | have made. Dare
any man, in writing the lives of Bessemer and
the men who helped along this great work
take from them the credit and honor which
justly belong to them, and put them where
the doctor claims they belong: Will not these
names be found high up in the list of those
who constitute the grand galaxy OF the world,
benetactors. My calling protective tariff oval
taxes" or my ever having been in Glasgow
has nothing to do with the question. | think
the doctor will find ii quite task to take
from these men the credit mankind has giver
them.
May 90 1SSS. &C.. PECK