The Ordway new era., 1909-10-29
One Third of the
Product of Our
Steel Mills
Used

for the big spenders-the railroads
are pouring In orders. And Pittsburs
is beginning to complain that the re-
bound is too sudden and the pace too
swift.
Some conception OF the relation be-
tween the railroad business and the
steel industry is had by taking an In.
yentory OF some OF the visible railroad
property made from iron and steel
the rails and rolling stock. the re-
newal Of which is the foundation Of
the steel Industry. The rolling stock
consists of 100000 freight cars. So.
900 passenger cars and $1,000 locomo-
tives. The locomotives are worth an
average OF $4,000 each; the passenger
cars. $4,000: and the freight cars
81 .0O0-giving an aggregate value OF
rolling stock of more than $4,000 .000.-
900. The rails now iaid-35. .00O. 900
tons-cost about $1,000. 0.0Oo. 900. 30 that
rails and rolling stock represent up
ward of $4,000. 100000.
This four billions worth OF steel.
made products wears out rapidly un-
der our heavy American traffic. Age
adds no luster to the materials OF In.
dustry on this side of the water. Over
In England. when a locomotive gets
along In middle life. they begin to tie
ribbons on her. like a pet COW. and
proudly keep count Of her mileage
from year to year. This 10 nice for the
locomotive. but hard on the steel
mills and locomotive works. Over
here. to-day's giant OF the rails IL to-
morrow's candidate for the scrap heap.
To keep rails and equipment up to
the American standard of use costs
upward Of $400.00O.000 year. while
additional equipment and new rail-
mileage is now costing around $500.
100000 year-that Is. We have now
reached the point OF putting $70O.OOo.'
900 year-as much as the whole cost
Of running the government-into rails.
cars and locomotives. These are the
big items OF railroad steel consump-
ton. Steel bridges. structural steel for
buildings and block signals and other
structures, steel tools and machinery.
and all the countless minor products
Of iron and steel used on the railroads
add. perhaps. 5000. 100000 more.
Here. then. we find the railroads
now on prosperity consumption basis
| Of 5000. O.00O.0u worth Of steel products
a year. Small wonder that the news.
The railroads are buying" vitalized
the steel Industry this summer and
lifted the cloud Of gloom from Pitts
burg. Steel Is a prince again: six
ho npnnPr-nf
thought 1t was.
What the closing Of the railroad
purse meant to the steel industry In
the year following the panic OF 1907
Ia strikingly shown In the slump In
the output OF rails and equipment. Ths
rail mills In 1906 rolled 100000 tons.
sold for 100000: the car shops In
1907 turned out 100000 cars. worth up.
ward Of $30O.000.00O; the locomotive
works output was 1900 locomotives.
bringing IN something like $90.000.O00
all told, 35OO.OO0. 900. Last year the
output fell away to 100000 tons Of
rails, $53. 100000 10000 cars. 38O.0O0.-
900, and 1880 locomotives. S27.OO0.O00
in all, 100000. 900. showing loss In
business to these three branches OF
the steel industry Of 334O.000.000.
One need go no further than the re-
ports of the big works to see the hav.
oc that was wrought In the steel trade
by the closing OF the railroad purse.
The Steel Corporations sales were
s766 900 900 In 1907 and $482.000. 900
in 1908, loss Of $284.000.O00. The
American Locomotive Company's
gross fell from s5O.OOO.00o to $4,000
900. One Of the car works reported
decline in income from $36.000.0O0 to
$8, ,O00,O 900 The car builders were the
worst sufferers. for the railroads al
ways stop buying cars when traffic de-
clines. In the dull times after the
bank panic the idle cars on American
railroad sidings would have made ten
solid strings across the country.
Railroad buying to-day is enormous.
but men like Hill Of the Great North
ern, and Brown of the New York Cen
tral, predict that the railroad purse Is
small compared with what 1t Will be.
Hill says that the railroads haven't
grown as fast as the country, and that
we ought to build them twice as fast
as we are row. Five billions of new
capital ought to be put into railroads
in five years. he thinks. Brown be-
lieves that seven and half billions In
is years Is a conservative estimate.
But this is too low figure. We are
now on a half billion year basis for
new railroad capital. Four billions OF
new capital has been put into Ameri-
can railroads since the. panic OF 93.
and half these years have been lean"
years.
One great industry that is just be-
ginning to feel the stimulus of rail-
road buying. and that is likely soon to
be revolutionized by an era of new
construction. is the copper industry.
Copper to-day is waiting for the rail-