The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-08-29

III tncSc DAYS OF hurried invest lhcHts "ncH
people without reflection put thcr money
in lots, houses and business, in places
whose future is based upon one natural
product, (and not upon so many as VIC
have hcre) and subject to the arbitrary
freight charges of the one road upon
which they are situated without early
prospects of competing lines, as we in eff
low
The Iron Situation in Pennsylvania.
The Posr commented last week OH Il
very significant editorial which appeared
in the Iron Age on the advance of freight
rates by the Pennsylvania railroads on
same paper Mr.. j. Wesley Pullman has a
card on the same subject, in which he
to the relief of the iron men of that
State. He says:
Your editorial Of July II prophetic. The nd
vance in freights the Pennsylvania railroads and
the Philadelphia l. Reading railroad southern pigs
(trom their junction points TO northern mills was
promptly met by the southern lines absorbing the
advance 6O cents advance per gross on), that the
southern furnaces ship To all Pennsylvania points nj
same through rates rs before. The writer knows Of
large contracts since concluded ut old prices.
The eastern Pennsylvania rolling mills must have
mill pig metal of quality equal 10, ar better than, the
southern irons southern prices dclivercd), working
without profit, or they will stop losing money in
Pennsylvania and 60 to Virginia and further south,
where manufactured irons can be made ut II round
profit The same Is true of the heavy iron founders
such cast iron pipe works and the stove foundrrS
who together. consume the great bulk Of the non
BesSemcr furnaces make Of Nos ], and 3 iron. We
must expect to lose the greater part OF southern
orders for bars, plates and sheets. We are already
beaten in nails Some Of the Albany and Troy stove
founders are building southern plants, claiming
they can no longer take Lchgh foundry pigs to tide
thence up the Hudson put into stoves for the ge-
rral trade The Hudson River blast furnaces, except
those BesScmcr pig, are mostly cold, n"twtl-
standing cheap and good Champlan and Duchess
county ores, und the few stacks still blowing, can
hardly live at existing prices
write to second your editorial Of 18th ul, hoping
your influential journal may convince the eastern
Pennsylvania railroads and coal companies that
prompt relief is needed TO avoid the bankruptcy
closing up OF many Of the furnaces and mills located
on their lines Very truly yours,
J. WESLEY PULLMAN.
Of course there is great outcry among
the Pennsylvania manufacturers, and, as
is the case in all disasters, the result is
very unjustly attributed to first one cause
and then another The railroads are
catching most of the blame. But why
blame the railroads? The Philadelphia &
Reading road, for instance, owns seven
furnaces in the Schuylkill valley, five of
which have already been closed to avoid
running them at q ruinous loss, and the
other two will soon share the same fate.
Is it reasonable to suppose the railroad
company would deliberately pursue
policy which destroyed the value of their
own property? The simple fact is, the
furnaces must pay for long hauls on their
raw material, and they can't do it and
compete successfully with furnaces located
where the raw material is found in the
greatest abundance, and where the haul
ing is a trfling item of expense. 1t is
not strange, therefore, that idle, aban-
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seen on every hand as monuments Of
great enterprises that have been wrecked"
as the Philadelphia Record describes the
situation.
Six years ago, the late j. b. Morehead
owned two furnaces in the Schuylkll val
ley; and an experience of fifty years in
iron making should give his utterances
the weight of high authority. He tcsti-
fed before the ways and means committee
of congress that "the actual cost of ma
terials and labor, with no allowance for
interest on capital, and wear and tear of
plant, was 50 cents per ton more than the
market price of the pig iron made. "
When it is observed that the price Of this
same iron is now $l.75 per ton less than
it was when this statement was made,
some idea may be formed of the constant
tendency and effect of southern competi-
ton and the inevitable result which must
follow it.
The railroads are not to be blamed,
since it is unreasonable to suppose they
would form combination to close the
furnaces and thereby destroy their own
tonnage These disasters are due solely
TO natural causes. They are due entirely
TO the simple fact that railroads have
penetrated the mineral regions of the
souths affording US the transportation we
need, and thus iron is made here several
hundred per cent. cheaper than it can
possibly be made in the north. The re-
suit is inevitable. There is no palmer
in mathematics. With the
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