The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1900-03-01
The O0hcial Paper Of San Juan County
THURSDAY. MARCH l, 1900.
SOME ECONOMIC OBSERVATIONS.

According to the Railway Age 4,5OC
miles of new railroad track were built
I'm the United States in 1899, distributed
among 3l2 different lines in forty-fouI
states and territories. The greatest
amount of building in any one state
was done by fifteen different lines in
Iowa, the aggregate being nearly 60O
miles. In the previous year the num-
Der of miles of new railroad built was
about 5000, while in no one of the four
years preceding 1898 did the amount
reach 1000 miles. 1t is announced,
upon apparently good authority, that
several thousand miles of new lines are
to be built during the present year, OF
which probably at least three-quarters
will be extensions of old systems.
~
Commenting upon the summary OF
the Railway Age the Review of Re
views says, among other things:
"These facts have an important bear
ing upon the outlook for the continued
activity of the iron and steel business.
For it is to be noted that the unprece-
dented demand for iron and steel in
this country has been the foremost
factor in the recent revival Of our bust
ness prosperity -this, however, resting
upon the underlying factor of agricul-
tural prosperity. Another point to be
noted is that considerable part of the
activity of our iron and steel industries
has been due to the great foreign de-
mand, in the supply of which our facil-
tiles enable us to take part with great
advantage. Not only are the great
steel companies enlarging their plants
and perfecting their methods. out great
numbers of small mills and furnaces
that had been idle for years are now in
profitable operation"
~
Some very interesting revelations as
to the enormous profits in the iron and
steel business have been made in the
complaint filed by H. G. Frick in his
great suit against Andrew Carnegie to
constrain the latter from compelling
the former to dispose of his stock in the
Carnegie Steel Company at price per
share far below that set upon the stock
by Carnegie himself. 1t appears from
Mr.. Tricks statement that the business
of the consolidated Carnegie companies
has reached such enormous proportions
that it paid during the past year net
profit of 81 ,000, 900, and it is expected
that the profits of the current year will
considerably exceed this vast sum. Mr..
Carnegie is reputed to value the prop
erty of the company at $500, 1000 900
and upon this enormous valuation his
individual interests would he worth
over $500, 900 900. Last spring he was
reported to have sold his interests fol
$l500OO, 900, of which Sl00,0OO,0O0 was
in the form of first mortgage five pei
cent bonds, giving him an annual in
come from that source alone of $1,000,
600, or approximately 100000 a week
And yet it is considered probable that
for good many years past Mr.. Car
negie's profits from the iron business
have reached much larger sum All
nually than five millions. What G
colossal fortune to be built up in the
life time of one man, who began hi:
life in this country rs an Immigrant
boy from Scotland, without capital OF
experience in the business in which he
was destined to become the most potent
individual factor i'm the world!
49,
From our point of view, and we be.
lieve it is one which is shared by tens
of thousands of firm believers in the
economic policy to which the remark
able development of the iron and steel
industries of the United States has
been very largely due, it is little short
of preposterous to any longer consider
industries which have become the
greatest Of their kind i'm the world and
which pay vast profits to the men who
control them, as in the "infant class,
and In need of the protection of impor,
duties SO high as to practically prohibit
foreign competition in this country anG
Mt the same time enable the American
producers to undersell their foreign
competitors in the foreign markets.
~
The Cosmopolitan Magazine for Feb
ruAry contains an interesting article or
the steel industry in the United States
in which the author says that "whert
we exported to Great Britain i'm lS9:
only fifty-nine tons of unwrought steel
and in 1896 less than 1000 tons, a veal
latter we sent them $1,000 tons, and in
1898 $4,000 TONS" The figures of 1896
were probably not available when the
article was written, but they are doubt
less considerably greater than those o.
the previous year. Referring to the
CONSERVATION with which American
competition is regarded in Great Brit
ain, the author of the article mentioned
says: "Two English investigators
spread dismay at home by bringing
back figures to show that pig-iron can
be produced in America almost SIS a tor
cheaper than in England, and that 9
still greater advantage obtains in the
matter of steel plates. Americans have
recently begun to sell steel rails also te
England, and evan locomotives; we
have caDfured from tho Eno,,sb N 49,,