The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-04-02

mace IN Ms CITY Win An output-Vk Aoos
tons of iron year, which. by little
Protection announcement could be.
made to supply all the iron needed
in the United States. they marveied.
None of them dreamed that within lao
years there would be corporation
making iron and steel on such q great
scale as to require as many employees
as there were then people in the state
of Connecticut. The Philadelphia
plant cost few thousand dollars.
A modern blast furnace Of the largest
type costs a million. The Philadel-
phia plant produced $50 tons q year,
The blast furnace of today can turn
out thousand times as much IN.
twelve morths. And yet 1t has nearly
all come about In generation, Tine
Civil War started steel and iron on
their triumphant career. 800
1t seems hard to believe, but IN CO.
ionial times the shoe Of Protection
was on the other foot. English iron
masters were demanding that they pc
protected against American IRON
Someone has said that the first dow
Of the Revolution was struck, not by
the swords at Bunker Hill. but by the
fitting hammers Of the colonial IRON
niongers. Before George washington
was born these captains of Industry
had hammered out an iron Declaration
of Independence OF the mother coun-
try In 171e the ominous news reach I
ed England that there were six fur
naces and nineteen FORCES IN operation
IN the colonies. and this resulted In
an unreienting demand by the British
ironmasters that this dangerous IN
dustry across the sec 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 ana by an American merchant
went to Liverpool to replenishs his
stock. He tried to buy some nails.
and when told their price replied thar
he could buy. better nails for less mon
ey Of John Taylor, a Pennsylvania
iron maker That remark echoed and
re-echeed throughout the Kingdom.
and was finally heard by Parliament
itself, when Lord Chatham declared
he would not allow the coionists to
make even the hobnails for their
boots. England thereafter "protec-
ted" herself against american iron oyi
forbidding the further construction
Of rolling mills, Sitting mills. steel
furnaces. or tiIt-hammer forgcs In
the colonies. And the American IRON
works became the center of the pre-
Revolutionary discomfort In the war
with the mother country the Ameri-
can iron-makers took most promi-
nent part. Nathaniel Greene was but
one OF dozens OF them who rose to
high positions under Washington.
General washington's own father was
a large stockhoider in a big furnace.
and from its product received five
dollars ton besides the company
dividends.
The next time England had to g"
against American iron. aside from
that which the patriots hurled at her,
fnaaSiVa chain
was placed across the Hudson at this
place. to prevent the British from
ascending the river to attack Albany
and Kingston second time. It, was
nearly a mile long, weighed some two
hundred tons. many OF the links be-
ing Of two hundred pounds weight
Its manufacture required six weeks,
with force OF sixty men working at
seventeen FORCES night and day. The
English never got past that chain;
a mute prophecy OF the time, when the
American manufacturer would put up
a barrier of competition In the com
mercial world past which the British
iron-master could not: 60.
Up to the Civil War the iron ana
steel business of the United States
did not amount to great deal. Our
civilization was them OF WOOD and
not of steel, and the demand was new /
err great Mrs. Rebecca Lukens was !
one OF the first iron manufacturers
after the Revolution and was the
first American to roll boiler plates
successfully. Her work bscame so
famous that her boiler plates tecs
the place of those of England In the
manufacture of George Stevenson's
first locomotives. @
The Protection that was given 10
iron and steel after the Revolution
and up to the War Of 1912 was intenr
ded to encourage their production as
u means of preparedness for war, vel
such authorities as Swank declare
that the duties of that period were
not high enough to amount to real
It is interesting to note
that during that period no one seems
to have thought that Protection on
pig iron or bar iron was necessary
or advisable. But about this time
England began to substitute coal and
coke for charcoal In the making OF
iron. and the process was very much
Meanwhile charcoal TIM
Der was getting scarce in the iron
producing centers here; anthracite
coal was out Of the question. and bit
luminous was too far away with tne
then limited transportation facilities.
The result was that America began to
lag, and Great Britain to go forward
IN the production Of iron and steel.
II is rather q remarkable fact that
under the two lowest tariff measures
OF the nineteenth century the iron and
steel industry Of the United states
expanded more in proportion than du-
ring almost any other like period IN
American history. But no one sup
noses tha this was due to low tarth.
The American had learned to produce
iron and steel with anthracite coal,
and thereafter the industry grew rap
tdlv The United States had its
eighth president before 1t 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
Industry. The high duties then neees-
nary for revenue purposes. the high
ocean freight rates because OF the war
perils of navigation, and the vast de-
mand for iron and steel products, all
served to send prices up to point
they had never before reached. The
profits were vast. The output was
nearly doubled. and the price OF iron
Jumped from less than nineteen dol
lars to more than seventy-three dol
lars per ton. To meet this demand
ali furnaces ran at full capacity all
the time and many a new one sprang
I'm TO reap the harvest OF gold from
a sowing of Iron. OF the three BIZ
lion dollars the war cost the United
states government. a. goodly share
went to the iron men. ~
During the twenty-five years fol-
lowing the Civil War the American
iron manufacturer found the govern
ment ready to give him all the Protec-
ton he asked for. And he flouriAhed
under it, Andrew Carnegie once had
ouarreI with his partners, and du-