Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-02-19
BIG POOL is QUASHED
UPON ITS RUINS RISES A TWO.
MAN TRUST.
Carnegie and Rockefeller Will At
tempt to Control the Steel Rail Mar
kets of the World-can Distance All
Competitors.
Death of the Giant Steel Pool.

The Carnegie Rockefeller interests in
the iron and steel business have been COM
bined, and they will seek to control the
steel rail business of the world. Tuesday
Il SIT price was announced at their East
ern mills, the cut from $50 having been
made within n few hours. The reduction
was met by the Illinois Steel Company at
Chicago, which makes about onc-third of
the rails produced in this country and
which has never belonged to the steel
pool, by a sol price, which, with freight,
completes with the Eastern mills.
The Carnegie-Rockefeller combination
is the outcome of n plan conceived by
John ID. Rockefeller years ago. He has
gradually acquired control of the vast
iron deposits of the Mesaba range. ab",c
Duluth. These deposits are so near tine
surface that mining has been done with
scoops. Competitors had to sink deep
shafts. Rockefeller bought or built rail-
roads to the lake docks, and constructed
the latter. When vessel owners squeezed
him on freights, he built q magnificent
feet of whalebnck barges. to carry his
ore to the smelling fursaces on Lake
Erie. These boats he built to draw 20
feet, and they carry ore SO cheaply that
scores of smaller boats cannot compete.
Az LiahC 1liS ~ lutO StCCAs nc COutCAn-
plated building his own smelter at Lake
Erie docks which he owned. but at the last
moment a deal with Carnegie was made,
and the result is n two-man trust of
power more stupendous than the world
has ever before seen. They can produce
finished steel rails cheaper than any other
parties in the world, and they intend to
control the markets of the universe.
This has been foreseen by other con-
Germs. The Illinois Steel Company has
already made sweeping reductions in
wages in all departments. preparatory to
the struggle. which President j. w. Gates
saw was to be serious.
The steel pool has been composed of the
Carnegie Steel Company. the Lacka-
wanna Iron and Steel Company. the
Maryland Steel Company. the Pennsylva-
mia Steel Company, the Bethlehem Iron
Company. the Cambria Iron Company. 1t
was fostered by Carnegie and Rockefeller
until their plans We're complete, and then
smashed at one blow.
Just before the Worlds Fair the rail-
roads spent a large amount OF money in
the bcttermcnt of their roadbeds. and
heavy purchases of steel rails resulted
Then came the blighting effects of the
panic. and from. that time until the pres
ent railway managers have been more
strongly bent on keeping down the cash
outgo than in keeping up their roadbcd
in the pink of condition. Nearly four
years have passed since Worlds Fair
preparations. and many of the lines are
getting into bad physical condition.
All the principal lines are in position To
require heavy purchases of new rails as
soon as business improves. and that most
railroad men believe will be after the in
auguration of the new President. So con-
tident are some railroad men that better
times are ut hand that they are likely to
| discount the future by placing heavy or
ders at once with the steel mills. now that
The price of steel has gone to bottom notch.
Began ut 500 a Ton.
All the original lines of railway were
built with iron rails. as steel in the early
days was considered Il luxury. to be used
most sparingly. When railways began
using steel for rails they imported them
from England and paid about 500 n ton
for John Brown" rails. A large mileage
was laid with rails at that price. Then
American mills began to make steel rails.
| and English competitors were finally driv-
en- from the field. Prices ranged down to
$50 Il ton some years afterward. and with
the steady advance in appliances for the
manufacture and handling of the product
the sagging in prices continued until $50
was named one day as the price of steel
rails. That announcement caused as
much excitement in the trade as the news
that. steel rails were being offered at S17.
The larger part of the steel rails used in
railway building was purchased at be-
tween $50 and $50 per ton.
Between 500 and SIT Il ton for steel
rails is the history of the most remarka.
BILE industrial development in the world.
When American mills began to compete
with foreign ironmongers the Lake SUI
perior region was a Wilderness. Duluth
was unlhcard of except as Il traders ham
let. There We're some copper mines on
Lake Superior. but the unlimited re-
sources of the region in iron IRE We're not
dreamed of. Once started the develop
mcnt went on apace between the iron
mines and the iron mills along Lake Erie
and at Chicago. From II humble begin
ming of some 800 tons. shipped a score of
years ago. to 100000 600 tons of iron ore
which went forward from the mines the
last season of navigation is the record
of that development. What English mills
are Offering steel rails for is no longer of
interest.