New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-30
THE STEEL INDUSTRY.
UNITED STATES THE GREATEST STEEL
PRODUCER AMONG NATIONS

UNITED STATES THE GREATEST STEEL
PRODUCER AMONG NATIONS.
philadelphia. May 29-The leading industry OF
the keystone State is STEEL and the manufacturers
of PENNSYLVANIA believe that this State not only
practically controls the steel trade OF the woro'
hut also that with her natural resources and her
many vast and well-equipped manufacturing plants,
she will always be able to maintain her supremacy,
meeting the demands Of the home market, as well
as supplying IN large part foreign needs In an
interview yesterday Colonel A. c. Buell. OF the
|. Cramp Engine and Shpbuildng Company, recos-
nized authority on the steel industry, was quoted
as saving in answer to a question as TO the causes
of the present activity in the American steel mar
ket and the prospect of its permanence:
The United States, through the operation OF natu-
raj causes has become the greatest steel-produceI
among nations oniii ION Grsai Ryitain but the
United states leads by several million 10 tons a
S5reniacy are permanent and rreversible In the
raw material FOR stee-msking the United states u
not only the richest country In the World oIt rSg LIZ
than ali other civilized countries together our Goa,
area already developed is about one hundred ana
Of this more than half IS cokng gas-Producins
coal of the kinds and qualities not so widely
difused those Of coal, put tney eAIeeu III s,tii
the combined ore deposits OF Europe tnat are sum
II must be borne in mind that the metal when iitn
Is now commonly known as s steer Of sir Henry
Bessemer and DR.. Siemens. with the s9osequenSs
peVotionzed the Industry So that in
thirty years the metal which we nov G Gnn md
t to Very Considerable extent superseded cast;
iron also for all structural uses 10 hnnboyys
steel economically requires ores low IN pnospno,us
or sulphur and high in the percentage OF metan ~.
iron Such are rare In Great ba,a RIA Snd
But most of the Spanish ores the ores OF North
ern Africa those out Of the Ural Mountains, IN
Russia those in Cuba and par ntaG aes
arr specially ada pied to the production OF modern
In 1898 the British beds alone did not produce
one-tenth Of the steel-making ores required In the
British industry II thus appears ma, pr bas only
The coal and doubtless say one-half of the other
materials such dolomte, manganese; etc. whicn
are used as accessories In furnace charging IN
the matter Of coal also. Great Brten is beginning
TO operate at a distinct disadvantage as compared
with the United States. For time the advantage
which British operators enjoyed Of much cheaper
Ia bor than that available in the united States
soUared the competition but with constantly de-
American development progressed steadiy' anu
Ar the same time had advantage Of cur
own which was not possessed In any degree oy the
British That our natural gas
one effect OF the Of natural gas in steel max
ing was to lower the cost Of production In this
no7Intry and thereby to cheaper the price OF the
npoduct 70 an extent which created a new gauge Of
the market and with II necessarily new CONNER
cia conditions with respect to the eatIe banc
been adopted cannot be reversed. and the result Is
that while TO great extent natural gas mas $50
in any part OF the United States, and while coal
thereby has necessarily resumed IT'S normal piafe
the industry Itself must stil De prosecutor OF the
new lines 1890. ....,
advantages OF the United states had so far con-
tsee ~ Great Britain that the cheaper labor OF
the latter country no longer able TO make good
nexorabie as the day Of Judgment the English be-
gan 10 import American steel.