Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-17
SOUTHERN SUPREMACY.
Ii Costs Less to Make Pig Iron in the
South than it Does in the North.
The Southern Manufacturer Finds q Market in
Pittsburg and Philade phia- Oppose
ton in the North.
Rusk Standard Enterprise.

| coal existed IN the Soutnern states III
sufficient quantities and of a quality tc
make the manufacture of iron matter
OF any considerable importance. The
| Northern and Northwestern states
claimed to have a monopoly of the raw
materials for making pig iron. When II
| was ascertalued that the South possessed
| was persistently asserted that Southern
| furnaces could not compete with North
| ern ones, because of the higher
| cost OF making the pig iron in the
| South. Every attempt TO build
| Southern furnaces had to meet and
overcome this encouragement. The truth
ia Northern and Northwestern iron max
| ers did not want to see q success made of
the business in the South. They had
| grown rich selling their iron and its
| products to the South. They proposed
! to have no competition, and hence their
combined efforts to discourage every at
| tempt to make pig iron in the South e.
But, in spite of this opposition, the
numb Der of Southern furnaces have
| continually increased until the
| manufacturer of pig iron in
| the South has attained a magnitude
that astouished the world. Within the
| present year Alabama made its first ship
ment of pig iron TO Pittsburg, Pa, and
now Southern pig iron Is being sold in
| Pittsburg and Philadelphia at prices be-
| low which Pennsylvania iron makers
| assert they can make it. And now comes
| the report of the United States commits
sioner of labor recently made to con-
gress, giving the startling official state
| ment that it costs less to make q ton OF
| pig iron in the South than it does in the
| North. 1t is shown from the report that
the cost of making coke pig iron in
| Pennsylvania averages S13. 60 ton, and
that the average cost of making a ton of
coke iron in the Southern furnaces is
| 5000, or 81. 80 less than the average
| cost of the Pennsylvania furnaces. 1t
shows further that the lowest cost
Mt which pig iron is made in the
| United States made at a Southern fur
mace at a cost of So. 90 ton.
The value of the report consists in the
fact that it is not only Official, but that
| the cost of manufacturing Is not stated
in q general way, but on the contrary
contains complete detailed itemized
account of the cost of making iron at
each furnace reported, North and South,
to furnace, labor, and all other ex-
penses. This statement is made up from
the books of each by experts employed
by the department of labor.
The conclusions drawn from an exam
ination of the report is irresistible that
il costs less on an average to make pig
iron in the Southern states than it does
in any other portion of the United States.
Not only this, IL shows why it costs less.
1t solves the problem of relative cost. 1t
shows that it consists largely in the fact
that the raw materials that enter into
the process of manufacturing, the ore,
fuel and lime exist in nearer proximity
to each other in the Southern states than
in any other portion, and that therefore
the cost of assembling or concentrating
them at the furnace is less. A few ex-
amples taken from the report
will illustrate this: The freight
on ore, coke and lime, used
in eleven Northern furnaces ranged from
81 .63 for each ton of iron made to S.. 81
per ton; an average of 1924; equal to
nearly 81 per cent. of total cost. In
eighteen Southern furnaces the freight on
materials used was from 1929, the low
est, to So. 20, the highest, the average
being 81. 10 per ton, equal 10 1623 per
cent. Assuming that the furnaces re-
ferred to fairly represent the cost of
making iron in the two sections, the ad-
vantages in favor of Southern furnaces
become apparent. Taking 81 OF as the
average cost of the production of South
eru iron, and S13.79 as the average of
Northern ones, we find that there is q
saving in favor the Southern furnaces Of
So. 90 per ton over the Northern, equal in
The Manufacturers Record of Au-
gust l6 says there is steady
sale of Southern pig iron in Phila-
delpbia at 81 per ton below the price
of Northern irons of equal grades. "Of
late No. / Alabama foundry iron has been
selling regularly in Philadelphia for SIT
per ton delivered. The present freight
rate from Birmingham, Ala, to Phila-
delphia by rail and water is S4.25 per
ton, SO that SIT per ton delivered in
Philadelphia means S12.75 per ton in
Birmingham. Compare this with SIS to
SIS. so, the ruling price for local brands
of No. foundry in Philadelphia. Mean
while Alabama gray forge iron sells in
Philadelphia for Sl4 so to SIS per ton,
which represents $40. 90 TO Sl0.75 in BIr-
mingham, while Pennsylvania iron max
ers are crying ruin at S15. so to S15. 10
for their iron of similar grade.
Unfortunately for the iron interests OF
East Texas, it has but one furnace in
operation and that Is owned by the state
and operated with convict labor. There
is therefore no data from which the cost
of production by private parties operat-
ing free labor can be estimated. But
the results obtained from the operation
of the states furnace through period
of five or six years, are amply sufficient
TO warrant the conclusion that charcoal
iron can be made in Cherokee county at
a cost less than that ut which coke iron is
made in Pennsylvania and other North
ern states. The cost of production of
charcoal iron at the states furnace, in.
Guiding cost of ore, coal, lime, labor,
interest and all other expenses is aboul
Sl2 per ton. This furnace was built for
a capacity of twenty-five tons. Experts
estimate that with a larger furnace,
operated with free labor by private par-
ties, the cost would be reduced below SI2
per ton.
Charcoal iron always commsnds q
higher price than coke iron. While in
July and August Birmingham, Ala.
was selling coke iron at from Sl0.75 to
Sl2. 10 psf ton delivered on board of cars
there, the state was selling its charcoal
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