The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-07-19
SHEETS
or Consular Reports Cause Alarm
y Among Germans and English.
DEMAND D ] |. FOR COAL AND IRON.
Highest Activity in Metal Indus
tries has Been Reached Americans
S5Wtll Remain Masters Of the Field
a by Virtue Of Their. Power Of Cheap
Production. 4.


WASHINGTON. July 1ss--Adyance
$shcats Of consular reports issued to-duy
contain the foliossins from Consul Gem
eral Mason at Der I'm. Z IS,
The recent. drop In. the price Of Amer
sliean Iron and steel has produced q fee1-i
Ing OF apprehension among the iron-
{ masters and holders OF Industrial se-
Scurities'in Germany and Great Britain.
Thoughtful and well informed men In
both countries. noting the gigantic
strides with which the mining and han
ding Of ores aid coal and the produc,
s3tion Of coke, pig iron and steel !wnre ;De- Z
Ing deyelopedsin the United s,atcs,havc
CLEARLY. foresean.the day when, the stress
GOT an abrormally actlve demand having
\ been tished, the European iron mar
kets would have to meat this attack OF
an American northumberland un-s
4 der every advantage of cheap. abun-
sdant materials, low frelghtagei and the
highest, most effective substitution OF
Z machinery for human labor-condl,ion
which would enable the Americans.
when the TING came. to reduce prices
without serious impairment of large
and profitabla output. IS. -. ~
Home Demand Was Still Active.
Partly as a feeler to test the approach
5 of the critical con5uncture. German
firm several months ago asked for pro-
4 posals for the delivery Of 1oo. 600 tons of
American pig iron: At that time the
I home demand int United. States was
still active, and the American iron men
replied briefly In the usual naive. amIa-
: bic way, giving n price per ton free on
board at an American seaport, but
\ leaving the important and difficult item
of ocean freight to be figured out by the
! European purchaser who is naturally
Yin no position to- know whether ships
4 for outward bound freights are obtain
iabie at an American port. or, II so, what
: rates are demanded. These early and
indefinite Offers created the impression
y here that the Americans were not yet
ready or eager to sell pig ;Irop..','5..i,
But toward the end OF Inlay the an
Z nouncement' came that "a machine
foundry at Prague had closed Il con-
3 tract fors4.000 tons Of American pig Iron
? to be delivered at Hamburg for 1888
i (slI0l) per ton between the date OF con-
tract and the autumn close of nnviga-,
ton. The Elbe. When this was fol-
D. - \ q 0 "
i lowed, "a few days later. by \ similar
report that an American firm had offer
ed to i foundry in the lower Rhine
i province a large Shipment OF iron for
Z, 81 marks $50 per ton c. +. Amster-
dam. It was recognized by German fur
mace men that the hour of danger had
come
Figures Not Absolutely Fatal.
+ Not that the figures proposed were
absolutely fatalGs Eighty-four marks
per ton ut Amsterdam would mean.
With freight 10 Westphalii added. some.
where about SO marks ts23 l6) per ton
i delivered at the foundry,and this would
be a price wlthwh!ch German pig iron
could stu fairly well compete; and
thereupon the commercial press ha stened
Ito stiffan up the declining stock market
& by comforting reassurarccs that the
y expected American invasion has not yet
4 begun, These, however. have not served
! Il. blind intelligent men to the tIct that
this offer meant nothing more or less
4 thanfthat Amprlca IL already In "A pbsi.