Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-10-01

1907. There is no fiction more firmly
fixed IN the Aerican mind than that
We are capturing foreign markets for
our manufactured articles For the
most part we are only artificial com
petitors, and would have to withdraw
from the foreign field if we were OBJ
liged to depend upon our own indus
trial merits. Our factories could not
exist and pay the current scale of
wages if they received for their total
product the prices now charged the
foreign purchaser. The American
manufacturer markets his surplus
abroad for what he can get, and re-
'coups himself by the large profit
which high tariff permits him to
charge the home consumer. | do not
intend to touch here at all upon the
merits or dement's of the tariff as an
.econoTnis proposition. But I state a
mere business fact when I say that
the profits secured to the manufac-
turer in the home market through
prices kept high by protection alone
enable him to sell even his small sur
Remove that, and our exports of man
ufactured articles would cease Al
ready Canada has a law against our
dumping surplus manufactures in their
markets. On an equal basis we could
sell abroad only that small line of ma
chinery which we make better than
any other people. And the initiative
Chinese and Japanese, as well as the
Workmen of Germany who are now
educated in their technical schools,
are constantly reducing the demand
for our goods. We should never be
able to make a much better showing
than the figure we now cut in interna-
tiOnal commerce. Rather we will be
more than fortunate to hold our own.
A Tariff View.
The relative advantage enjoyed in
the past by reason of our possession
of vast stores of unused raw material
is disappearing. The time is ap-
preaching when we will be still less
able to manufacture in competition
with other peoples; when tariff walls
could not be built high enough to
keep out the intruder without crush
ing the life out of our own people. It
is matter of fact familiar to all OF
you that the progressive exhaustion of
our forests has multiplied the prices
Of lumber within the past few years
Every farmer who has built a house
Or barn or even a fence. unless he had
timber for it upon his own holding,
has felt the heavy tax Now wood is
an important item in manufacture,
and the cost of production rises with
its scarcity. Quite as disturbing is
the situation with reference to those
other prime necessaries of cheap man
ufacturing and competition in the
worlds markets-coal and iron. We
are using now nearly 5O0,0O0,O0O tons
of coal annually. At that rate the
estimated total supply Of the United
States would last 1000 years, and we
need not disturb ourselves. But ex-
IL
ton of coal doubles every ten years
That is the statistical record of the
past If it holds good in the future
and there is no reason why it may not,
we shall be short Of good coal at rea-
IsOnable prices where it is most wanted
before the end of the present cen
fury. This is the pinch that Great
Britain now feels, in being obliged to
resort to lower levels in her coal mines
10 obtain fuel for her industries at an
enhanced cost. So serious is the sit
uatiOn that she is already considering
the propriety of an export duty on
local. The same problem will face us
in the future of which l am speaking.
Question of Iron Supply.
Much more pressing is the ques-
Ition of iron supply. This metal is
the foundation of the worlds indus,
trial life. Our possession of great
quantities of rich ore in the most
available localities is d great factor IN
our development. But last year we
consumed 50,00O,000 tons of iron ore
and at that rate the principal supplies,
those in the Lake Superior region,
must be exhausted in about forty
years. There are nowhere else such
large deposits known, and the country
has been prospected carefully. Per
outside of the Appalachian country
and the great deposits in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan is in southern
Utah. 1t IS believed to amount to
about 100000 tons all told. It
would last US, at our present rate OF
consumption, for eighteen months;
and consumption of iron is increasing
as steadily as that of coal. In 1897
our pig iron product was 1862, $50
tons; in 1907 it was 25,7S1,3 61 tons.
1T costs now about 81 to transform a
ton of Lake Superior iron ore into pig
iron, including the cost of mining,
transportation and manufacture. With
$50 per cent ore. where five tons go to
the making of three tons of pig, this
makes the actual cost of the iron
S1166 per ton. Fifty per cent ore makes
iron cisting $14 per ton. Forty per
cent ore makes iron costing $3.50
per ton. Low grade ores, like those
LOT the southern states, can be used
commercially because the ore, lime
stone and coal are found in close
proximity. thus reducing the cost of
manufacture.