Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-05-21
AMERICAN TARIFF LAWS
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.
STEEL AND THE TAFT

When Representative Clymer, of Phila-
delphia, arose in the first congress ana
told his colleagues of a furnace in his
city with an output of $50 tons OF iron
a year, which, by a little protection en-
couragement could be made to supply all
the iron needed in the United states,
they marveled None of them dreamed
that within 100 years there would be
corporation making iron and steel on
such a great scale as to require as many
employees as there were then people IN
the state of Connecticut. The Philadel-
phta plant cost few thousand dollars.
modern blast furnace of the largest
type costs a million. The Philadelpha
plant produced $50 tons a year. The blast
furnace of today can turn out a thousand
times as much in twelve months. Ana
vet it has nearly all come about in a
generation. The Civil war started steel
and iron on their triumphant career.
1t seems hard to believe, but in colo
NAL times the shoe of protection was on
the other foot. English iron masters
were demanding that they be protected
against American iron. Someone has
said that the first blow of the revolu-
ton was struck not by swords at Bun
ker Hill, but by the tilting-hammers OF
the colonial ironmongers. Before George
Washington was born these captains OF
industry had hammered out an iron de-
claration of independence Of the mother
country In 1719 the ominous news reach
ed England that there were six furnaces
and nineteen FORCES in operation In the
colonies, and this resulted in an unre-
lenting demand by the British ironmas-
tiers that this dangerous industry across
the sea be stifled. The result was that
an act of outlawry and confiscation was
passed against every skilled workman
in the colonies.
Then England felt secure for awhile.
BY and by an American merchant went
to Liverpool to replenish his stock. He
tried to buy some nails, and when told
their price replied that he could buy bet
ter nails for less money of John Taylor,
a Pennsylvania iron-maker. That re-
mark echoed and re-echoed through the
kingdom, and was finally heard by par
lament itself, when Lord Chatham de-
cared he would not allow the colonists
to make even the hobnails for their boots
England thereafter protected" herself
against American iron by forbidding the
further construction of rolling mills, slit
ting mills, steel furnaces, or tilt-ham-
mer FORCES in the colonies. And the
American iron works became the center
of the pre-revolutionary discomfort In
the war with the mother country the
American iron makers took most prom
inent part Nathaniel Greene was but
one of dozens of them who rose to high
positions under Washington. General
Washington's own father was large
stockholder in a big furnace, and from
its product received five dollars ton,
besides the company dividends.
The next time England had to go
fv0w cir that
which the patriots hurled at her, was at
West Piont A massive chain was placed
across the Hudson at this place, to pre-
vent the British from ascending the river
to attack Albany and Kingston second
time 1t was nearly a mile long, weigh
ed some two hundred tons. many Of the
links being of two hundred pounds
weight. It's manufacture required six
weeks with force of sixty men working
at seventeen FORCES night and day The
English never got past that chain; mute
prophecy of the time when the Ameri-
can manufacturer would put up barrier
of competition in the commercial world
past which the British iron-master could
not CO.
IN to the civil war the iron and steel
business of The United States did not
amount to a great deal. Our civilization
was then of wood, and not Of steel, and
the demand was never great. Mrs. Re
becca Lukens was one of the first iron
manufacturers after the revolution and
was the first American to roll boiler
plates successfully. Her work became
so famous that her boiler plates took the
place of those of England in the manu-
facture of George StevensOn's first loco
motives.
The protection that was given to iron
and steel after the revolution and up 10
the war of 1872 was intended to encourage
their production as a means of prepar-
edness for war, yet such authorities as
Swank declare that the duties of that
period were not high enough to amount to
real protection. 1t is interesting to note
that during that period no one seems 10
have thought that protection on pig iron
or bar iron was necessary or advisable.
But about this time England began &c
substitute coal and coke for charcoal IN
the making of iron. and the process was
very much cheapened. Meanwhile char
coal timber was getting scarce in the
iron-producing centers here; anthracite
coal was out of the question, and btu
minous was too far away with the then
limited transportation facilities. The re-
suit was that America began to lag.
and Great Britain to go forward in the
production of iron and steel.
It is a rather remarkable fact that I'M
der the two lowest tarlH measures ol tIe
nineteenth century the iron and steel in
dustry of the United States expanded
more in proportion than during almost
any other like period in American his
tory But no one suppOses that thlS was
due to a low tariff. The American HAD
learned to produce iron and steel with
anthracite coal, and thereafter the indus
try grew rapidly. The United States
had it's eighth president before it had
its first steel pillow. Yet from that time
there was to be a growing use of steel
and iron that was unprecedented
AS before stated, the civil war was the
real making of the iron and steel indus