The record-union., 1899-09-18
MADE IDLE BY PROSPERITY.
Boom in American
Steel Products.

It is a remarkable paradox that while
the recent great development in the
production and sale of American iron
and steel is considered by men in the
trade as the beginning of an era of
great business prosperity, it is throw
ing thousands of men out of employ
ment.
At the Cramps ship yard, in Phiia
delphia, for example, where several
vessels, including war ships for Rus
sia, are awaiting completion, mechanics
are being discharged right and left
simply because the firm cannot get
enough steel plates to enable 1t to go
on with construction.
Mills throughout the country are
working overtime, and no Industrious
ironworker who knows his business
need seek employment in vain. At the
ore mines in the Northwest, where
everything is being rushed to get all
the ore possible to the mills before
cold weather closes navigation, there
is and has been for weeks a positive
scarcity of labor.
Those who are feeling the pinch OF
adversely in the food tide of prosper
ity are the workmen who depend upon
the finished product for their raw ma
terial. The finished product of one in
dustry is the raw material of the next.
From the viewpoint of these men pros
perity, for the time being, seems to be
spelled backward.
Several men prominent in the iron
trade with whom I have talked say the
idleness of the mechanics for want of
1v1s- 01 ic {ar,
and that it does not surprise them.
''It isl said one "as though the own
er of one of the vessels that the Cramps
cannot finish on time had already en-
gagged a crew for the vessel. He would
not, probably, keep them on the pay
roll for three or four months delay in
construction, but they might be GER
tain of employment when the vessel
was ready.
II have seen published statements
that the shortage of steel is due to
large expectations. 1t has been said,
among other things, that the new
White Star steamer Oceanic has been
largely covered with steel plates ex-
ported from this country. Such state
ments are easy to make and difficult
to disprove, but / have not been able
to find any record of such expectation.
nor have I seen anybody who has. L
do not believe that our steel manufac-
turers are bothering just now about
the foreign trade. They have more
than they can do to supply what is
required for home consumption
"The present demand, which means
nothing else but general prosperity
promises to keep up for another year
at least. If there is any trouble at all
it will come from the shortage of ore
from the mines in the Northwest. We
shall not feel that until next winter or
spring, after navigation has been clos
ed for some time. The orders for this
year, of course, are all placed. and
the mill owners are hustling to make
sure that they get all the ore they
have been promised
It appeared to be almost an assured
thing with some steel manufacturers
who discussed the subject that the mill
owners will not get from the mines
all the ore they We're promised before
the steel boom began, or anything like
it. In fact, the probability is that all
orders will be scaled from 10 to Il
per cent. The main supply of ore from
the Northwest comes from Minnesota
and Michigan. Not much is coming
from the South to help out.
Reports from Alabama and Georgia
show that a great deal of the compar-
atively small stock in the yards is tied
up by litigation and not now avail
able for the market. The South is
really in the throes of an iron famine
that has long been predicted, and the
outlook for immediate relief is consid-
cred very poor. It seems certain that
mill owners must depend for their sup
ply on the great mines in the North
west, and unless there is prompt and
rapid increase in the quantities coming