The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1905-04-12
STEEL TRADES FUTURE
Outlook For Industry as Viewed
by Charles M. Schwab.

FORMER President of steel Trust he
Iieves That the Year 1910 VIII See
United States Consuming Over
25,OOO,OOO Tons of Steel - Wooden
Sleepers on Railroads Doomed.
Charles NJ. Schwab, former president
Of the billion dollar steel trust, recent
ly gave an interview to the New York
American on the steel trade of the
United States.
1.-THE prospects were never greater
than at this time" he said "Indica-
tons as read them point to high tide
in the steel business for the coming
year. cannot see further ahead than
that at this time, but / am sure that
the works in which am interested are
receiving today approximately two and
half times as many orders as they
can attend to at this time.
$50 far as I can foresee the trade
| In this country will soon realize that
its sale of steel must be confined to the
| United States alone and that the mar
| ACL tIOA OdO VIII US dOdAOOASu (hAOo5A
conditions just beginning to develop.
81 never regarded the export of stee.
as a very important factor in the steel
business for this reason: Our principal
market of export in the past has been
England and its colonies because our
steel was there admitted free of duty.
awe never exported much steel to AUS
| tria, France or Germany. Now, Cham
| berlain is doing for England and the
colonies and will do for England and
| her colonies just what the other coun-
| tries have done, and that is protect the
home industry. That is sure to come
about in England and her colonies.
England will place preferential tariff
on her colonies for Englands manufac-
ture. so that the future development of
steel for the United States in export
will not grow as rapidly, but it will be
more than made up by the possib1H-
ties of home consumption.
I'm 1880 this country consumed only
about 100000 tons of steel. Last
year about 100000 tons of steel were
consumed, and it has been gradually
increasing since then.
II believe that the year 1910 will see
this country consuming over 25,OOO,OOO
tons of steel, and when this country
does consume any such amount of steel
your mines and railroads and transpor-
tatlon and your milling facilities will
be found inadequate to meet the de-
mands.
"The reason for this is clear. Every
railroad that puts down steel rails has
to renew them every seven or eight
years. 1t takes 100000 tons of rails
annually to replace those worn out in
America alone That will Increase
from time to time Five or ten years
ago structural steel was in its infancy;
today structural steel is the biggest
branch of the steel business. Seven
years ago the steel car was not known;
today it is taking $500 to 5000 tons
of steel daily. The steel sleeper, the
tie, has just started They have put
the first down only this year. In five
years from now there will be more
use for steel ties than for rails. In
others words, l feel that we are just
beginning the steel business in this
country and that we are not going to
stop. We are going to go on and on
until it will run by it's own momen-
tum. You have got to replace these
things, and the future, to my mind, is
going to see the steel industry far
greater than ever before.
"As a matter of fact, there has al
ways been a vast amount of mtscon-
ception as to this foreig IN market for
steel. 1t has never been anything
more than a filler 1t has enabled
us to keep our plants running when
otherwise they would have been closed
up, and in this way has saved us from
great losses. You must understand
that to close a great steel plant down
for a month means a greater loss than
the man who is not in steel can com
prehend Even though we sold steel
at what It cost to make it, 1t would
be worth while to keep our plants
running during those times when they
would otherwise be closed. For this
reason the foreign markets have al
ways been of great advantage in that
way. They have enabled us to keep
our works going and our men employ
ed, and we have been swung across
periods of what would have been great
Industrial depression but for the abil-
ity to sell orr surplus stock abroad.
When we can get the home market we
naturally prefer it, however. Steel
sent abroad is merely an incident in
the trade