Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-09-10
Iron Ore Wages and Profits

There is no business in which labor
and capital get such disproportionatC
rewards as in the mining of iron ore
The average annual earnings of the
ore miners is only $500, but the mine:
have yielded enormous fortunes tC
their owners. Early last spring a
number of men employed by the Me
tropolitan Iron and Land company
one of the Michigan concerns, tried
to get their wages increased from 81 so
a day (they do not get work all the
year round). The company's agent
declared that the mines would be
closed before the concession would be
made. And yet on January 18th last
this Metropolitan Iron and Land Co
paid cash dividend equal to 26 pei
cent. on April 20 it paid II per cent
more, and Oh May LIST it paid stock
dividend of % per cent. The Pitts.
burg Commercial Gazette last spring
said of the iron ore business:
One company, with capital Of
5000, 900, is reported to have cleared
in fifteen months oyer 100000, or
considerably more than the entire cap.
ital. Stock at the par value of $25
has gone up until it is held at $175 a
share, which is not at all strange when
the earning capacity of the company
is considered.
When Charlemagne Tower died a
year ago the New York Tribune esti-
mated his fortune at $21 100000. 1t
was made in the Vermillion iron re-
gion. Three years ago the Tribune
said:
The iron mines of the Marquette
region in Michigan have been under
combination arrangement for years,
and the mines Of the Vermilion re-
gion, a few miles north of Duluth,
are in the hands of two or three groups
so that with this arrangement with
reference to the Gogebic and Menom-
inee ranges perfected the Bessemer
iron ore supply of that region will be
in so few hands that it can be manip-
ulated as a monopoly.
And last year the Tribune mention
ed the following transaction
On July 5, 1887, Mr.. Tower dispos-
ed of his large interests in the YER
range to syndicate = com
posed of General Porter, Of the Pull
man car company; j. G. Morse, of
the Union Steel company, of Chicago;
Marshal Field, of Chicago; d. o.
Mills, of New York, j. d. Rockafell-
err, of the Standard Oil Co., and a
of others.
1t is not in the interest of labor,
but Of these ten.and twenty.millon-
aires, that the Republican Senators.
with four exceptions, voted to retain
the present duty of 70 cents II ton on
iron ore.
Commenting last spring on the
strike alluded to above, we said that
the protective duty on iron ore was
substantially equal to the whole pay
roll of this company. In other words,
the government, out Of taxes levied
On the whole people, furnished labor
yratuitously to these millionaire mine
owners. 1t is no wonder these men
got rich when all the profits went to
themselves and all the expenses were
betrayed by public taxation. Colonel
of the Bureau of Labor Sta
tistics, sent to Congress last week re-
port on the cost of producing iron,
steel and coal, which shows that in 63
mines the cost of labor per
,on of ore runs from 40 cents to $2.17,
md in 10 of the 60 cases the cost of
abor was less than the 70 cents ton
levied ostensibly to offset
he difference" between American
md foreign wages. The same report
shows the value of labor in one ton Of
,re mined in Europe, and there is only
n cents difference" to offset.
Prior to 1883 the duty on iron ore
vas 20 per cent. ad valorem, which
vas about the same as 30 cents a ton.
The tariff commission of 1882 recon-
nended that the duty be fixed at so
tents. The tariff bill of 1883 did fix
t at that rate, but when the bill was
n conference committee General Ma
Zone, who owned some iron mines, got
he conferees to make duty Is cents.
National Democrat.