Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-27
A VERY POOR SEASON
For all Iron Industries Was That Just
Coming to Close.
PRICES THE LOWEST ON RECORD.
Everything Now Points to Summer of,
Extreme DullneSS.
ORDERS, SHIPMENTS AND ALTERATIONS

comparably dull. The usually quiet con-
dition of these important trades at this
season of the year is at present heightened
by the appearance and existence of divers
influences tending to unfavorably affect the
demand and prices for all grades of iron and
steel
The close of the month of June witnesses
the approach of stock-taking time lasting a
couple of weeks, and during which period
mills, as Pile, completely retrench in
their purchases and exert their capacity to
Use up their accumulations of raw materials,
md for this reason nc sales of any moment
are rs a rule recorded during this period.
Ii there are, it is for future delivery. The
nGyent of the heated term is also the signal
for q quieter movement, which usually
lasts o full month, the time of the shut
down VARYING according to location and
other conditions, from the 1st of July
to the 18th of August. 1t is during this
period that contemplated additions and i'm
provements are usually carried into effect
and the extent to which they are made is
looked upon as an indication Of manufact-
urers' belief in the future.
The Reign of Midsummer Dizziness.
30. lOr tDeSe reasons dlOne, lle nlQSuIQ-
mcr dullness," of which we hear so much,
can. as a certainty, be looked for to occur
annually even under the most favorable cir
cumstanceS The probable severity and
time Of duration of the dull period referred
t. is always Judged according to the imme-
diate past condition of the market and the
probable outlook, Judged from the evidence
existing. Thus, if the season closes on an
acJive and buoyant market, with makers
appearing unwilling to close down their
plants, these signs are an almost infallible
criterion of the short duration of the
shutdown movement while or the other
hand, if weakness and depression charac-
;erize the life of the market during the pre-
vious winter and the future prospects do
not appear much brighter mill owners will
make no great haste to resume.
In an attempt to forecast the probable
conditions whi3h will govern this dull
period, which the market is just entering
upon, it will be necessary first to review the
condition of the market during the last ten
months which is not a difficult matter.
The past season has undoubtedly proven
one of the most disastrous to every industry
akin to the manufacture OF iron and steel
that has been recorded during the last
decade. The season opened with an ex-
Crednglv light demand for raw and finished
iron and with prices ruling extremely low
Bessemer iron being quoted in October last
al Sl7 OO@1I 30, and forge irons at S15 COG
- %.
Small Buying Squirt.
This condition has proven to be the
history OF the trade all through
the winter with but one exception,
when, owing to the greatly restricted
production consequent on the voluntary
shutdown OF the blast furnaces in the Ma
honing and Shenango Valleys from Janu-
airy almost TO the present time, and the
forced suspension of casting among many
furnaces in this district as a result of the
coke strike, a squirt in buying set in, which
revived the demand and prices somewhat,
hut this actually died in its birth and a
gradually weaker market has since ruled,
until at present prices are possibly on the
lowest scale ever reached in the history of
the pig iron industry in this country.
Many causes conspired to produce this
abnormal depression, but the history of the
downward tendency is well remembered by
those engaged IN the trade. So, Judging
from the immediate past condition of the
market, there is not much seen to give re-
newed hope for a short dull period What
the future has in store for the market
is as yet an unknown quantity, owing
to the existence of MANY important
factors yet problematicaL What the trade
now places its greatest hopes in is on the
crop WELD for 1891, and the recent reports
made public by the Agricultural Depart
ment, estimating the wheat yield at 543,-
o62, coo bushels, or 95.3 per cent of full
crop, and similar tiattering reports for other
cereals have given birth to a new hope in
the breasts Of iron masters throughout the
country, and the railroad demand for iron
nd ST raely yT1ll in ha ohoh1 II,
Of sufficient proportions TO enable them to
regain what they have lost. Other inhu-
ences which have given the outlook a
brighter aspect are the recent reports of
easier money at home and abroad and the
favorable May returns from the railroads.
The Amalgamated Scale.
There is 10 importance attached to the
Amalgamated scale at present as market
controller for, while some hesitation has
been manifested on the part of mill
owners, It's amicable settlement is only
question of a little time. So as
far rs can be seen, rather dull summer,
both as regards the demand and prices for
iron, will most likely rule, with the situa-
ton somewhat clearer and the future out
look probably a little brighter for the fall
and winter season than when last recorded
The most important question in iron and
steel labor circles at present is the prospect
Of the amiCable settlement Of the annual
scale of the Amalgamated Association of
Iron and Steel Workers, which is at pres
eat being acted upon by the workers con-
yention and manufacturers committee in
session The 1892 scale practically pre-
serves the basis OF last years scale, but a
number Of both important and unimportant
changes are proposed in various depart
ments Of mill work.
Chief among the important concessions
asked for by the workers is an addition to
the memorandum of agreement stating the
time in scrapping and busheling; also the
finishing and all other departments
shall IN no case exceed nine
hours from the time the first heat
is charged until charging shall cease. This
clause is not to apply TO boiling depart
ments Except busheling and scrapping) or
rod mills, wire mills, nut and bolt works
and all other departments at present work
ing under the eight-hour plan.
The Weight of Pudding Charges.
Another important change proposed is
contained in the clause providing for the
weight of charges in the pudding furnace;
single furnaces to be charged not less than
900 nor more than $50 pounds per heat;
double furnaces not less than !, 900 nor more
than l, 100 pounds per heat; Siemens fur
naccS, not less than /, 400 nor more than $50
pounds per heat; doublc-double furnaces, not
less than 2,GOO nor more than 900
pounds per heat, and the semi-monthly
work shall be taken as an average. In ref
crencc to the time to be taken in boiling a
heat the new clause proposes that inferior
coal, tools and scarcity OF ore and scrap
shall be considered a grievance.
= l,,rS :. Al