The age-herald., 1898-12-31
OUR IRON AND
 STEEL TRADE

l Samuel, at the Harrison building yesterday seems at present to have not limit The only thing against it is the cost of ocean
 carriage"
 The conversation had been about the re.
 cent immense orders for steel rails for
 Prussia and Australia and iron pipes fop England and her colonies, and MT. Samuel, who was one of the first if not the first, exporter of iron in this country, had been asked to give some of his information for the benefit of readers of the Inquirer "No European country can compete with us, either in cheapness of production or
 manufacture" he went on. "The supply of both iron and coal in Great Britain is fail- ing, and Germany has not SO much as it
 used to have. Besides in England all the old styles of machinery are still in vogue, and they cannot manufacture there any thing like so cheaply as we are able to do here. 4x But labor is more expensive here than in England?"
 ''I tell you," said MT. Samuel, that in no country in the world does labor cost so
 little per ton of iron or steel produced as
 in the United States. The individual la- borer is paid infinitely better, yes. But
 
 the od-fashioned factories of the old coun- try large number of employees is required. Here, with all the latest devices of labor
 saving machinery, one man does the work of ten. Then our machinery is in every way superior, and in every respect turns out better work, and does 1t more rapidly than anything they have in England. Why, if 1t will take the Sparrow's Point works txvn Two the+ der for rails, it could not be done in Eng 1 land under eighteeni Again, since the | great iron fields on the northern lakes were l discovered, we have supply that is almost limitless for great many years Somes thing else must be taken into consideration, the difference in the cost and facilities of carriage from the mine to the factory. In England the trucks are built with a ca. pacity of from four to six and perhaps eight tons; how can they compete with trucks carrying forty or fifty tons? Don't you see that, even if the charges on freight were higher here, the possibility of getting enormous quantities of ore at a time de- livered at your furnace door overcomes the extra cost?"
 "How about ocean freght?'
 "Well in some cases the bids include that, but in the case of steel rails being shipped all the way round to Vladivostok the risk would be too great. That would | never pay. No, indeed! The ocean car- riage is not done in American vessels. Nine-tenths, had almost said ten-tenths
 of the ocean freghtage is done in foreign bottoms, mostly English, although Spain had quite a good many freight carriers before the war. It is this wayi Half a dozen pool their money together and fit out tramp steamer, there are hum
 dreds of such associations, and presently they get together and join issues and have
 a nice little fleet between them. Now, England is just far ahead of us in the matter of shipbuilding as we are ahead of her in making locomotives or steel rails. Why they can build one of their big war vessels over there in year which it would take us at least eighteen months to build. l suppose the time is not far away when
 we, too, shall have as great if not greater mercantile marine, and when no nation will be able to compete with us."
 Where do you find your greatest mar kct?"
 "Well, will tell you I look upon Africa. Australia China and Japan as the great fields for our trade operations. These coun- tries are today just like our western prairies were fifty years ago. They are just opening up, and are being laid out for rail- roads in every direction. Positive networks or railways will cover these vast countries before long, and it is to them that we must look to dispose of our products. At the same time we are sending immense quan- | titles of pig iron to England herself for her own supplies are not by any means as plentiful as they were, and, as l have already shown you, we produce and | convey to the coast more cheaply, rapidly | ana In larger quantities than they can. But | it is in the great newly-developing conti- nents that our largest and best sales will occur.
 We have had a vevry serious drawback | to contend with in obtaining foreign con- | tracts until within recent years" went on | MT Samuel. II refer to the difficulty we l nave experienced in fulfilling the specfica- | tions required by foreign companies With l Tn the past five years we have learned how l to give them what they want although 90 1 very different from what we make for our l selves Take the article of steel rails. for l instance Those required and used in Eng | land are entirely different from ours They
 are years behind us; indeed, we never did l use anything like them. Still they want
 them, and to get their trade we must give 1 them what they want. If our customers | had only been content to take what we | use ourselves We would have had their | trade long ago. Then, again. you ought 1 1 specifications they send us, and we are ex- | pected to fulfill. Here, for instance is ese | from Australia. You see 1t contains page l upon page of conditions and terms and all 1 sorts of red tape. Why, when the Pennsyi- vania railroad asks for bids for steel rails | or anything else 1t has a short contract of l about two-thirds of page, the contents of which can be grasped in moment When
 one of these lengthy affairs is put before one of our manufacturers he simply glances | n utI IA ..1~.. l through 1t when he gets little more time l However, we are getting onto the ways and needs of our foreign customers, and are 1 doing our best to carry out their wishes'' By the size and frequency of the con- tracts that American manufacturers are receiving from foreign countries it appears | We are having considerable success" "Oh, yes; and there can be no doubt that our success is going to be permanent. The ca uses may be summed up in few words