Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-05-27
LANCAsTER, PA. NAY ~, 1889.


Andrew Carnegie's opinions about
steel making may be considered valuable;
and the statement he makes through the
london edition Of the New York Herald
that rails have been sold In Pittsburg at
their present quotation in London and
thG&-steel plates are about as cheap here
lnthere, is very interesting one. II is
not news to those who are in the steel
business, but doubtless is to the public
generally, who have not realized the
rapidity cf the pace with which
steel values have approached each
other here and In England. II
IL true that steel rails at the
factory In England are cheaper than in
London, which Mr.. Carnegie takes ns
the place at which TO compare their
value with that at the factory here. Our
manufacturers prices at their works are
etill above the English figure but they
have come very notably close when
they open tn our manufacturers the
South American and Canadian markets,
~ Mr.. Carnegie declares his opinion that
they will, during this year. There is
abundant justification for the opinion
when the United States can sell steel
rails to English colonies.
Certainly that event will mark that
the time has about come W hen our manu-
factures do not need the protection Of the
steel rail product by duty which,
however, they will not he In II hurry to
surrender, fearing as Mr.. Carnegie does,
that this equilibrium between home and
foreign prices IL only found now because
OF the inactivity Of manufacture at home
and Its activity abroad. When the for
eign mills get slack in orders they are
expected to lower their prices, SO as to
dump upon us their surplus product at
rates that will shut our factories up.
This Is process with which our home
factories are familiar. When the big
mills in the West find their market too
small, they send their surplus Fast
and sell it at price that shuts down the
Eastern mills. When the Chicago steel
rail mills are slack they give Mr. Car
negie's Eastern mills n lively tusseI for
orders. When the great furnaces Of the
South cannot sell their iron nearer
home, they invade the Pennsylvania
market and use us as the dumping
place Of their surplus, at prices which
yield them no profit.
Mr.. Carnegie wants the tariff, tn avoid
any such relief for the foreign mills, in
their time of distress, at our expense.
And he wants the tariff, too, apparently.
out of reverence for what II has done, even
though II may have exhausted its value.
The tariff brought about this produc-
ti0Hsbf cheap steel, he says; and says
truly. IL it had not been for the protec-
tion Of the tariff, capital would not have
ventured into the industry, and our
great steel plants would not have
been established, and perfected such
economy of labor as to enable them
to compete with the low labor of Eng
land, and defy also the extra cost oftheir
product caused by the higher prices of
raw materials that the tariff also pro-
tects
Protection has enabled the child to
attain the stature Of man and now
that il has done its work, il will die. A
policy that is good in one condition of n
country Is bad in another and the pro-
lection policy, that has cultivated our
manufacturers, ceases to be of value to
them and becomes an injury, when they
have reached a self-sustaining point. As
Onr steel rail makers are ready to
challenge the English makers in English
colonies, 1t is TO their interest that tn,
duties levied ON all the raw materials o
manufacture shall he taken Off; and they
can afford TO surrender their own pro
tective duty, and permit the government
to establish rate on rails that will bt
for revenue only.
The development of the country il adj
vancing with enormous strides, as the
steel situation shows. The present dull.
ness in manufacturing springs, as Mr.
Carnegie says, entirely from the fact
that our manufacturing growth has out
footed the growth Of population and ouI
home demand. We need new worlds to
conquer; and the steel rail situation
shows that the greater cost Of our labor
and our tariff Is met and balanced by
our lessened cost through the suhstitu
tion of machinery for men; whereby
now, il is said, that in Mr.. Carnegic's
mills at Braddock, eight cents pays tn,
labor cost of handling IA ton of rails from
the time the bloom leaves the furnac,
until the rail is loaded on the cars fol
shipment.