Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-19
PITTSBURG HIS PET.
Flattering Report of Belgium's Con-
sui General on the Many
INDUSTRIES OF THE TWIN CITIES.
The Future of the City Declared to Be Full
of Great Promise.
BENEFIT OF PROTECTION TO AMERICA
INDUSTRIES OF THE TWIN CITIES.
BENEFIT OF PROTECTION TO AMERICA

An interesting document was received
yesterday BY the Consular Agent of Belgium,
for the local Chamber of Commerce. 1t Is
the report of NJ. P. Hsgeman, Consul Gen.
eral of Belgium, now located at Philadel-
phia, which he has prepared to send to the
officials of his Government, on the recent
British Iron and Steel Institute, which he
accompanied on its tour through the manu-
featuring centers of the United States.
In this report the Belgian Consul speaks
very fatteringly of Pittsburg as the manu-
featuring center of the Union. He refers to
1t as the center of the coal basin, extending
from the Allegheny Mountains and the
State of Alabama, and it takes the first
place among the manufacturing cities of the
States. He calls it the birmingham and
the Sheffield of the United States, says that
through its position at the onjunction of
the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers it is
made one of the most important commercial
posts. 1t is from this that Pittsburg is the
intermediate market between the slope and
the South and West, sending out coal, rails,
iron, glass, etc., and getting in return, cot
ton, sugar, tobacco, minerals, lumber, grain
and meat. Continuing, Mr.. Hageman SAYS:
No More the Smoky City.
"Pitts0urg is not the smoky city of few
years ago. Large, clean, well-paved streets,
bordered on either side by fine architectural
houses, magnificent stores. hotels, banks anu
clubs, give it an aspect OF wealth and pros
perity that only a few of the larger cities
possess. Great industrial plants now occupy
the common vase places of a few years ago,
and thev are surrounded with beautiful villas.
Natural gas Is largely responsible for this. The
future OF this great city Is full of promise. Its
geographical position; its multiplied resources;
lis industries and the Importance of its COM
merce. assure fer it prolonged prosperity a
CITY and wealth and happiness as people.
Looking at Pittsburg from Belgian stand
point, il Is the most productive center of the
United States, IN which we have the deepest
interest and we must Know its present situa-
tiOn well as its outlook for the future, for
the industries are the same as our own, and that
means that we have competitor for the
markets of tue world. We alike have our blast
furnaces, steel works, rolling mills. iron foun-
dries, machine shops. nail factories, glass works
of all Kinds. and those which surround Pitts
something to Belgium. l thought when / was
going into Pittsburg that l was being trans
ported 20 the shores of the Meuse and Sambre,
II was so much like home.
The Industrial Exposition which was opened
to US only gave a feeble idea of the productive
force of the community. 1t is a private enter
prise, which IN part resembles the Crystal Pal
ace OF Sydenham. l was pleased to note that
the work of Belgian artists was among the
most prominent in the art exhibition"
The Works That Made Them Stare,
Mr.. Hageman then describes in detail the
works, the manner of operations and the char
acter of the products of the establish
ments ne visited while here. Among
these were the Westinghouse and
Thomson-Houston electric plants; the
Pitts5urG Reduction Company, the Fuel Gas
and Supply Company, Oil Well Supply Com
pany, the Phoenix Glass Company, the Phila-
delphia Glass Company Carnegie Phipps &
Co., Carnegie Bros. & Co., H. e. Frick Coke
Company. the keystone Bridge Compa ~ and
the PittsburS Plate Glass Works OF tine
products of these works he has probably
more to saw of aluminium manufactured by the
Pittsburg Reduction Company than anv other
A French chemist Henri saint Clair Deville,
made the first experiments on this subject, in
order to obtain pure aluminium and MIR.
HaGeman predicts that the alloy is soon to
become an important factor as a manufactur-
ing material
The Consul closes his report by paying his re-
spects to the Mckinley bill in terms that will
be interesting TO American manufacturers He
says: "All our people have wondered if this
law would not onfy close the United States to
European products, but also furnish an excuse
to force reciprocity upon the southern coun-
tries, for which effect the Pan-American Con-
gress of 1889 was lnstigated, and by which
means the United States could control the two
Americas to the exclusion of our products. 1t
is incontestible that this danger is possible. In
our old Europe the creation of metallurgical
establishments in seven or eight years on such
a scale as those now owned and controlled bv
Mr.. Carnegie would simply be fantaiSie
ruineuse. If they exist here, they owe their
existence to the high duty that protects them
to the great and extensive national market,
and, to a certain extent to the use of natural
gas as fuel"