The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-08-15
An Unhealthy Boom in Iron.

Whatever may be the Nalue OF MI
Hull's remedy for extraordinary booms
in pig iron-which, our readers Will re-
member, contemplates the listing OF
pig iron certificates on change and the
opening of the production of pig iron
to general speculation--the fact is be-
yond denial that such boOms as we are
now experiencing are, in the long run,
unhealthy. People who are now bene-
filing will in the near future have TO
yield an equivalent in suffering on ac-
count of this boom and a moments re-
Election will show why.
One year ago 1877 furnaces were in
blast, with a weekly capacity of 206,-
III gross tons; the year before that
152 furnaces were producing but l65,3IS
gross tons per week; today, the weekly
tonnage, with 244 furnaces in blast, is
267. .672, and from one boundary of the
country to the others every contriv-
ance which by any ingenuity can be
converted into q blast furnace is being
rigged up so as to contribute Its quota
toward supplying the present phenom-
email demand. More than that all the
large rail plants are being pushed to
their extreme capacity, and large ad-
ditions in most cases are being plan
ned; every little plant which in ordin-
airy times is hardly worth operating
at all is now being busted out, prepar-
atory to being fitted with rolling mill
attachments; and if current reports
rail and billet mills are to be erected
as soon as possible in different parts
of the country. The mania to increase
production at all hazards has taken
general possession of the trade.
Let us frankly admit that all this
feverish night-and-day activity is all
very well while it lasts. Let us also
concede that very likely a new era in
| demand has been entered upon by the
| trade in rails, billets and structural
| shapes; a period of growing markets.
| But who can rightfully expect this
moderate and gradual growth in the
| export trade to accommodate the til
| tanic and sudden increase in produc-
! tiveness resulting or sure to result from
the present spasmodic boom? Unlike
! some other forms of industry, the steel
business requires for it's successful
conduct not only great capital, which
cannot afford to lie fallow between
booms, but also a class of labor which
cannot be gathered together in the busy
season and set adrift in the slack sea-
son. There is in this industry a pc
culiar need for steadiness both in op-
erations and in profits, and violent
fluctuations in prices are diametrically
| opposed to these cardinal requirements.
Operators of railroads have discov-
cred through sad experience that the
jerk and lag style of railroading, the
policy of rushing trains one hour and
then lettering along with them the
next hour, does not pay Hence a
regular rate of speed is decreed and
wOrkmen are held to the schedule. Sim
ilarly in the iron trade, what is needed
is gradual and steady pull ahead and
not fits and jerks, followed inevitably
by slow downs and steps. 1t ought tc
be within the ability OF the leading in.
luences in the steel rail industry tc
bring about a better degree of uniform.
ity in these matters. No sensible mar
can believe that it is a healthy or a
wholly necessary condition when the
ton of pig iron that in January last
could not find buyer at Sl0.50 now
brings up into the twenties and is like
ly ere the year is over to command $50
This is not genuine business conval
escence. 1t is a form of commercial
delirium and for its brief period o.
abnormal life the iron trade must in
evitably pay round price in subse
quent depression.
Exact uniformity is of course out o
the question; but are these quick eX
tremes Of vicissitude entirely beyond
check?