The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-19
IRON INDUSTRY AS A TEST OF
PROSPERITY.

"A gentleman just returned from
the East told the writer of this yester-
day that all the glamour and all the
trumpeting about improved times was
mostly local and generally bound TO
be short-lived."
He says the steel works are crowd
ed to their utmost capacity, and Will
be for months to come, but with the
orders now in filed, no more orders be-
ing received, the result will have to
be collapse some time in January.
These two sentences are from the
Tribune of yesterday. Who the gentle
man referred to is we have no idea,
but we believe the view he takes of
the matters of which he speaks is err
roneous. In the very nature of things,
improved times will be local before
they become general The Importance
of the improved times is that they
started in those great centers of in
dustry whose heart beats send the
life-blood of commence 10 all parts of
the land. These improved times and
this return of prosperity are first
noted and are most marked in those
very industries that above all others it
is desirable they should be. That they
are bound to be short-Hved is very
doubtful, in truth the probability is
all the other way.
. Let us examine the second sentence
above quoted. 1t is stated that While
the steel works are crowded to their
utmost capacity at present there will
in To
Another pie crust prophecy.
"A Pittsburg telegram of the 18th inst.
to the Philadelphia Ledger states that
Secretary Killgallon, of the Anal
gamated association. says the outlook
in the iron trade could not be much
better The Carnegie company us re-
fusing orders for delivery within three
months, and has contracts aggregating
close to 1000, 900 tons of structural ma
teriaI, much of which is for delivery
next year. The Homestead beam mill
is the largest in the world it has
capacity of 5000 tons weekly, enough
to build two buildings of fifteen
stories"
Secretary Killgallon says "the out
look in the iron trade could not be
much better" Which cannot be con-
strued to mean that there will be "a
collapse some time in January" How
could it be when much of the struc-
turai iron contracted for by the Car
magic company is for delivery next
year? And what is true of this com
pany is doubtless true of other large
concerns.
This same telegram from Pittsburg
says that the tin plate industry is
booming; that ou. of an official list of
rs tin-plate mills now in operation in
various parts of the country % have
been erected in the past year. 1t GER
tainly does not look as though the
Democratic tariff bill had hurt the tin
plate industry.
We shall close this article with an
extract from the Iron Age. which, in
it's monthly summary of the produc-
zion of pig iron in the United States,
says:
During August many Of the fur
IdCGS WINCH nave DSGn SGlllllS ISdQy
to begin production succeeded in max
ing a start, so that there has been a
marked increase in the current pro-
duction Of pig iron. We are now getting
on at a rapid rate to the 100000 ton
mark for weekly output and are now
making more iron than ever in our
history or that of any other country
Production is still increasing and yet
seems unable to keep up with the. de-
mand in certain branches.
ga table of the production by weeks
shows that on September 1 there were
215 furnaces in blast, with an aggre-
gate capacity of 194,O29 gross tons,
which figures compare with 200 fur
naces and capacity of 1SO,02S gross
tons on August /, and III furnaces in
blast, with a capacity of 151,1So gross
tons. on September 1, 1894.
Probably the most striking fact in
connection with the developments of
the past two months is how clearly
inadequate is the furnace plant of the
central west That will probably be
remedied during the next year. The
furnacemen in those districts have
done SO exceedingly well during the
second half of 1895, and are pretty
sure of good returns until next spring.
that a number of them will probably
put profits into new works"
All this scarcely portends a collapse
some time in January.