The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1888-05-11
AMERICA IS ON TOP.
A Great English Trust is Made
to SqueaI
BECAUSE PROTECTION RULES.
"stop Sales to America" is Their Cry.
They Want Swedish Iron Kept
Out on Account of the su-
perlor Steel We Make.

PITrsBuRoH, May lO.-The Chronicle
Telegraph has the following:
"Stop sales to America"
That was the close Of a dispatch upon
which hangs tale. The tale is one
which should interest and instruct every
one concernedin the protection Of Amer
ican industry, and especially the gentle,
men in Washington who have to deal
with the Mills bill.
The dispatch was received day OF
two ago by the head Of one Of the CHIEF
establishments in Pittsburgh engaged in
the manufacture OF fine steel.
But, to the tale. Away back in 1872,
the firm referred to saw the necessity OF
securing better iron than could be had
in this country rs base for high grade
steel, and II wds proposed that Swedish
iron be obtained from England. But
one of the members OF the firm who had
worked in English mills and knew that
poor English iron was given the Swed-
ish brand and palmed offon the Ameri-
can public, objected that it would be
unsafe to import on orders.
Accordingly another member was sent
to Europe to see to securing the genuine
metal. When he reached England he
found that the Sheffield steel men had a
complete monopoly OF the best Swedish
iron and practically OF the mine from
which the ore was dug. They made
five-year contracts for It and had the
owners OF the mine bound not TO lift q
pound OF ore for any person else. They
had formed what in these days would be
called trust, and had absolute control
OF n mine to all appearances inexhausti-
Bile in its wealth Of ore.
The Pittsburgher, after seeing the
situation in England, set out for Sweden,
where he visited the iron-produCing CEN
tiers, and talked with the men about the
United States rs future market for
their iron. They could not see things
rs he did, believing that England was
their market and to England only they
looked. He then went to the mine in
question ut Dannemora, aparish twenty
three miles north OF the city OF
Upsels, went down into it and in
spected its immense resources, which
the English had monopolized, Mean
time he was turning an idea. Going to
Stockholm, he talked with the iron
merchants, and in the course OF his talk
wanted to know il there was not some
one who had ore rights in the mine and
who could manufacture on his own ac-
count. They knew OF no one, but at his
solicitation promised to make diligent
inquiry on that point. He came home
and soon afterward received letter
from one OF the merchants, saying that
such a person us sought for had been
found, He owned little, old disused
furnace.
The Pittsburgher replied in behalf OF
his firm that il this man would put his
furnace in blast they would make three
year contract with himfor three hundred
and fifty tons year. The offer was ac-
cepted, the Pittsburghers planked down
their gold in London for bills OF ex-
change in which all payments for the
iron were to be made, and shipments be-
gan. They have been coming ever since.
Not many years after the shipments
began, the five year contracts made by
the English for this Swedish iron ceased,
and there was an abundance OF it to be
had in the English markets. The
monopoly had been broken, The Ameri-
can market for fine steel had been wrest-
cd from the grasp OF the English and
they no longer had use for all the iron
from the famous mine.
The last contract OF the Pittsburgh
ers with the Swede will expire shortly,
and day before yesterday letter was re-
ceived from him containing telegraphic
dispatch from the English who formerly
monopoli2ed the iron. The dispatch
was an offer to take all the iron pro-
duced, and it wound up with the words
quoted at the head OF this article;
"Stop sales to America"
What does that mean? That the Eng
lish are watching the progress Of the
Mills bill, are expecting it to pass; mean
while they propose to renew their
monopoly OF the iron essential to the
manufacture OF fine steel, and when the
tariff bars are let down by the bill be-
coming a law, they will pour their pro-
duct in on the American market and
swamp their American rivals. That is
the secret OF the emphatic injunction:
"Stop sales to America"
But the sales will not stop. The
Swede referred to said in his letter that
he was ready to renew his Pittsburgh
contract, and that his fellows who could
not see the future for their product in
the United States when pointed out TO
them by the Pittsburgh manufacturer,
have since had their eyes opened to the
facts which he enumerated then. No
one is more aware Of this than the Eng
lish, and hence their efforts to re-estab-
lish the iron trust and parcel out the
iron among themselves in such way as
to regain the ground lost in the United
States.