Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-02

will always get back freights of coal, fire.
brick, building stone or manufactured
goods; but were q steamer to take no back
freight she could deliver ore at Pittsburg for
25 cents ton less than ruling "lake and
rail- rates, and make more money in sea-
son than she can in the lakes.
How 1t Would Boom Pittsburg.
If we get the canal ready for the season Of
1895 pig iron production In these valleys
and the Pittsburg district will in the year
1900 be fully twice what it was in 1889; and
the movement of ores from Lake Erie ports
to the region in question will aggregate
about 1854, 098 gross tons; of which Con the
basis of operations in 1889) about A, 900, 900
tons will 90 to Allegheny county and
vicinity, and the balance to the two valleys.
The canal should be, and no doubt will
be free waterway; and il it is free the
transportation charges on the above named
tonnage for Allegheny county will be
So, 934, 1853 less, and on the tonnage for the
valleys 81, ,321, 402 less than they would be
at the rates now ruling. With "tolr' of
20 cents per ton on ore to Allegheny county,
Mahoning AID Shenango valleys, the
saving on the Allegheny county ore would
be only S2,942, 1858, and on the valley ore
only 81, SS1 1898.
But delivery at the furnaces in the dis
tricts in question by rail, in the period Of
one year, of 9,000, 600 tons Of ore, Is phys
ical impossibility. If the canal be not
promptly built the production Of iron in
these valleys will decrease instead of in
creasing; and finally, in order to maintain
even the materially decreased production,
the railways will have to reduce rates fully
as much as they will in event OF the con-
struction of the canal. Meantime the area
Of greatest production Of pig iron will have
moved southwark; and the great volume of
general traffic which would come to the
roads with the construction Of the canal
will have been lost to them. !
Advised to Stick to Friends.
The present stoppage of the furnaces in
these valleys has already made inevitable q
falling off in the product of this year, as
compared with that of 1890. of at least $50,
900 gross tons. This involves falling of
in railway traffic of at least !, 800 900 tons;
and of lake traffic, and sales of ore, of at
least 568, 750 tons. As nobody knows when
the furnaces will resume operations, nobody
can say what the actual falling of will be-.
Let us hope that it may not be SO great that
we cannot make it good next year.
Meantime let US hold up the hands Of the
iron masters. we cOmmeuu Lnlb llu6 OF
action to the Iron Trade Reuieo. II that
journal will devote an hour or two to a care
full perusai Of the report OF the Pennsylvania
Ship Canal Commission 1t will find ample
ground for belief that the canal will work
immense benefits not only to the iron trade,
but to all the industries Of the two great re-
gions, interchange of traffic between which
it will facilitate and foster.
The Marine Reuieu, in its issue Of April
23, says that the canal project ''is the most
unfeasible that might be imagined;" and
that sit is the well-arranged collection OF
statistics presented by the Canal Commits.
sion that is misleading" Pending explana-
tion on the part of the Marine Revie,o OF
the manner in which and the extent to
which the said statistics "mislead," we take
the responsibility of assuring the Iron
Trade Revieao that the statistics in question
are authentic in every detail; and that the
Canal Commission invites the closest tests
of the accuracy of them or any of them.