The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-10-03
Our Future Iron Production.

supply OF foreign markets..
Our Future Iron Production.
Prom the Boston Herald.l
Tn anticipation of the general confer
encc of iron and steel manufacturers, both
of this country and of Europe, which is
to open its session in New York next
week, Mr.. Edward Atkinson, of this city,
has prepared paper for the Manufac-
turcrs' Record of Baltimore, on the future
of the worlds production of iron and
steel. In 1856 Mr.. Abram S. Hewitt pre-
pared for New York scientific society a
paper of a somewhat similar character
predicting, as the result OF experience
and investigation, that an enormous IN
crease in the worlds production and use
of iron was TO take place before the end
ing of the present century. AT that time
it was impossible for him to have foreseen
the tremendous changes that have been
brought about by the discovery OF the
cheap processes of converting iron ore
into steel, or the great impetus that has
been given to railroad building in this
country bv the growth of our population
and tho increased demand for our agricul-
Mr. Hewitt seemed at that time fabulous,
in view of the then small production and
consumption of iron in this country and
in Europe; but time has more than verified
his calculations, for the production in the
amount of iron that he estimated for 1879
has boon surpassed in 1890.
Mr.. Atkinson's new estimates have boon
submitted to Mr. Hewitt, and have re-
ceived his approval as coming quite within
the line of the probable; and yet in their
way, and in the deductions to be drawn
from them, they arc almost as fabulous in
appearance as those which Mr.. Hewitt
made public four years before our civil
war. Within the next twenty years the
worlds demand for iron and steel, accord
ing to this calculation, will increase to
double its present proportions, with, it
may DO added, the continued tendency to
increase to still larger dimensions.
Where is this supply to come from?
Not from England, which has already SO
far exhausted its resources that mining in
most parts of the United Kingdom is be-
coming each year a more expensive oper-
alton, in consequence Of the great depth
to which the mines have been carried.
Besides, for the production of steel it is
already necessary for the English to i'm
port each year millions of tons of iron
ore from Spain and Africa, with the effect
of materially Diminishing the supplies at
these places. There are, no doubt, many
parts of the worlds surface where rich
iron mines arc to be found that have not
got been brought TO public attention; but
it seems safe to affirm that, within Il very
few years from this time, the greater part
of tho worlds supply of iron-that is, not
only tho iron that we use ourselves, but
the iron that foreign nations use-will
have of necessity to come from the
United States
In this great development Of our nat
ural resources, certain sections of our
country will take Il much larger share
than others. At the meeting Of the
British Iron & Steel Association, Inst
year, Mr.. Hewitt said that there was no
part of the United States where iron ore
and coal were so chcapiy produced as in
Northern Alabama, and no place where
the work Of assembling the materials re-
quirod for the production of pig iron was
carried on ut so low a cost But, looking
to the future rather than the present, M.
-itkiason is Of the opinion that the center
OF our iron and steel production is to be
found IN The section of country formed by
Eastern Tennessee, Western North Caro-
lima and Southeastern I'I;rginia. In tho
section SO described he believes that the
iron ores necessary for the manufacture
Of Bcssomcr steel can be simply quarred
out of the earth at an absurdly low cost
for mining; that the coal needed for the
manufacture of coke can be easily OBJ
taincd, and that the limestone required in
the blast furnaces can be found in great
abundance. Not only does it seem prob
able to him that iron and steel can be
produced in this region at minimum of
cost, but that it can be produced in
almost unlimited quantities, and more
over, under conditions that will admit of
its shipment either to the interior of the
country or to tidewater ut relatively low
cost.
The United States will be- able, under
these conditions, in short time more, to
set the price of iron and steel for the
world, not only on account of our ability
to produce the surplus stock that Europe
and tho other parts of the eastern and
western hemispheres will desire, but be-
cause wo shall be able to manufacture
iron and steel at prices which, if they OBJ
tanned to-day, would defy competition.
This is prediction of not little signif-
canoe, because upon it's ful6llment NAV
hang largo part of the industrial welfare
Of this country. 1t is well known that
iron is the basis of almost all of the mer-
camille arts, and is factor in controlling
prices in large number Of different occu-
pations.
1t has been pointed out by Mr.. Atkinson
that the American people have paid in the
last ten years tribute TO the iron masters
the equivalent Of $700,0O0,OOO, in the
higher prices they have been compelled
to give for their iron and steel than has
been paid by the foreign purchasers of
iron and steel in the other markets of the
world. 1t is this handicap that has pre-
vented American manufacturing indus
tries from properly expanding. But if,
for any reason, the prices of these raw
materials were placed on plane of equal
ity, then, beside the market that would be
found for American iron and steel in NIL
parts of the world, We should also find
millions upon millions of customers for
the numberless articles made by US out of
these raw materials This is the future
toward which Dir. Atkinson's predictions