The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-10-15


In 1900 (estimated). 80 900 900
OF this last enormous total there is good
reason to believe that the United States
will supply 40 per cent.
A word as to the new level of prices 1t Is
too high of course to be permanently main
tanned. 1t is too high for the lasting good
of this great industry. But we must not be
misled by making false comparisons. The
conditions reached in the lean years follow
ing the panic were abnormal, not natural.
Iron was forced to Sc a ton at Birmingham
on wages of 90 cents day for twelve hours
work; on transportation rates that did not
return the railroads cost; and on destruc-
ton of royalties, or values of the ore and
coal in the ground. The same was practi-
caly true in the Lake Superior district. 1t
was simply a struggle for life. Values of
great proportions shrunk from millions to
hundreds of thousands. Labor and capital
fed to other fields. America learned great
and valuable lessons during this trying ex-
perience, among Others how to produce IRON
more cheaply than has ever been done IN
the history of the world. Perhaps in the
end the experience may prove to nave peeh
blessing But we must not make the err
ror of supposing that those were norman
conditions, and that when we nave escaped
from them are on an artihcial basis.
sound view is that we are nearer normal
conditions today than we were when lOO,0V0
tons of Sc pig iron went begging for buyer
in New York. A cent a pound for the pest
mig iron in the world should not, after all,
paralyze the faculties of reasonable per-
sons.
II should not be forgotten that the cost
of iron resolves itself substantially into
three things: labor transportation and roy
allies. or the value of the material in the
ground. Labor, the largest item, Is up 20
to 40 per cent in iron making. 1t Is not yet
too high for the good of the country. Trans
portation is up about as mueh, out WHO
hold Of O
and steamship lines are, not emitted 10 a
few dividends after years of waiting! IL is
now possible to credit ore and coal mines
with something for the materials in the
ground But is it a violent assumption tnat
the great iron and coal deposits of the Unit
ed States which are usually counted the
foundation of wealth in an industrial ma
tion are actually worth something and
should return a profit to their owners on
material mined out? If these points are
conceded, the legitimate cost of pig iron IN
the United States is at least SO per cent
above the low level to whichit was forced
in the years from 1895 to 1885,. The manu-
facturer's profit, if any, must be added to
this 1t is some satisfaction to know also
that cost is rising proportionately IN otner
parts of the world In Great Britain and
Germany the increase varies from ~ to "a
ner ton. according to kind of metal and To-
cality where it is made. This is due main
w to the steady rise in the price OF coke,
although ores have advanced and are In
short supply.
Cautious investors as well as manufacture
esrs quite naturally look forward to the time
when collapse will again take the place OF
BOOM and prices will drop below cost or
production. Who shall stand against that
day? The strong, who expect to survive,
are taking extraordinary measures to equip
themselves for whatever may happen. The
huge consolidations-at least those newly
organized-are free from bonded debt with
large provisions for working capital. Some
of them indeed are lenders of money in the
street. Nearly all have strengthened them
selves by ownership of ore mines, coal
mines, coke ovens and even transportation
lines, so that they are Independent from
the ground up If the time ever again
comes for fight for existence, 1t will be
between giants indeed, and no other nation
can resist American nroads. But every OBJ
serving man has noted in the instructive
years of the past decade, the wonderful te-
nacityof life of small plants well located
and economically managed. Another thing
that has not escaped notice is that in the
Survival" struggle, there is marked ten
dency to equalize conditions in all the diff
ferent districts. 1t is a fact capable of de-
monstration that the best returns on capt.
tai during the lean years were not from
the great concerns in the most favored loca-
tions (barring one or two eXceptions) but
from certain smaller operations located in
districts not usually spoken of as the cheap