New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-12
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE STORY OF IRON.

IRON IN ALL AGES, BY James N. swanh, Sec, Sec,
rssry stan and GsneT Ma""s 81 t' BY he hsio
alton. POI South Fourtllst.. Ph'iad'iphia' lo"2'
evo, q 5o4.
Mr. Cc.lnk is one Of those men whose work con-
stitutes the characteristic feature of the age IN
which he lives 1t has been said that this Is
the age of steel With more truth 1t may be
called the age of industrial records-of labor
guided by intelligence and large information re-
earding production and demand Until within
the last thirty years labor worked in the dark
Each manufacturer, each miner. each farmer, went
on blindly producing what lie could with scarcely
any information of what Others were doing IN
the aggregate, what was likely to be the &C.
Dand for the things he produced But within
the last three decades every branch OF industry
has found il necessary TO defend itself, by full
and timely information, against frequent ana
disastrous mistakes Each industry has created
records for ITSELF many of them more full and
accurate than were formerly obtained by the
Government, two or three years after census re-
gArding the productions of the cersus year. Those
who raise wheat, corn or hogs. wool, cotton, to-
hacco or sugar, insist upon knowing as early
az possible the probable yield and the probable
demand, and all the great manufacturers guard
and guide themselves BY reports made as fire.
quently and promptly as possible.
Mr.. Swank has been among the foremost of
those who have created this new era of industrial
Information, and to this day no industrial sta
tistics Of large Importance. in this any other
country, are superior in accuracy, promptness
or value TO those of the Iron and Steel Asso-
ctatisn under Mr. Swanl's management. Twenty
years of constant study have equipped him pc
culiarly as the historian of this great branch of
labor, and in large and finely printed volume
Of 554 broad pages he has embraced, not only
the history of the last twenty years, which he
has been compiling year by year, but whatever a
life 81 investigation has enabled him to learn
regarding the growth of the industry from the
earliest time.
The second edition of Mr.. Swanks work proves
to be, to an unusual degree, new book. This is
not merely because the industry itself has de-
veloped so marveously within the seven years
since the first edition was published that it has
eclipsed all previous records. The story and the
statistics are. indeed, brought down to the pres
ent time. but nearly every chapter in the first
edition has been rewritten and enriched with
fresh information. Fifteen chapters have been
added, and in these and others great amount
OF new Information is given regarding the early
history of the iron manufacture in this and
In other countries. Mr.. SwanlS is lucid and
vigorous writer who does not overload his mar
rative with statistical data, although these are
fully given in the appropriate chapters The
great body of his worl; tells Of the successive
steps by which, through many centuries of un-
wearying effort man has achieved the mastery
over nature through an industry which has dore
more than any other to make the world what
1t Is.