The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1910-06-11

IL has been noteworthy that wiSnin
the past few years the chief blast fur'
mace contraction in the central west
has been by steel interests. In hve
wears. 1869 inclusive. only merchant
furnaces have been built In what -
generally known AS the central west.
At the present time, however the
building Of merchant furnaces IN THIS
district Is proceeding apaoe, there he
ing no less than eight furnaces under
construction. Plans as to four Of these
were announced late last December,
three had been placed under continue
ton before that time. and dehnite
work mon the eighth has been under
taken only within the past few weeks
The eight furnaces are; One by the
Detroit Iron a. steel Co. two by the
Irodnois Iron Co.. at Chicago. TWO
by the Rogers-Brown Iron Co. al
Buffalo; two by the River Furnace q
Dock Co, at Cleveland, and one by the
.Jospehine Furnace Co. at Josephine
Pa The first named is associated with
NJ. A. Hanna a. Co.. the next four are
associated with Rogers. Brown q Co,
and the last three arc directly owned
by Corrigan. Mckinney a. Co.
Whereas, several Of the ten merchant
furnaces built during the past hve
years had practically no ore connec-
tions. and scarcely any were directly
associated with ore interests, the eight
furnaces now being built are directly
by recognized Lake Superior ore inter.
eats. The motive for the building OF
these furnaces is apparent. The de-
velopments Of the past few years have
been clearly along the line that ore IS a
paramount consideration. In the mid
die nineties, ore went begging it was
something to be picked mp at greater
bargain each year and furnace inter
ests were glad they did not have 70
bother with ore mining.
Il is natural that the ore. mine and
the blast furnace should be owned by
the same interest, but 1t Is signihcent
that the trend in recent years has not
been for the old furnace companies to
buy ore mines; II has been rather Tor
the old ore interests TO build blast FUR
naces
Thegtime was that merchant fur
naoes looked askance at Lake super
Tor ore interests engaging in the manu-
facture OF pig iron II was felt that
an ore producing interest should not
compete with its customers The doc
trine was fairly acceptable when the
total profits from ore through pig iron
were large, and almost any division
represented good profit to both ore
miner and pig iron producer. but the
total profits have been reduced both by
the decline in pig iron and by the in
creased cost OF ore mining. Through
the rapid development on the ore
ranges. more and more inaccessible ore
deposits are mined, and an ore mine
represents the locking mp OF great
deal OF capital IL is not feasible TO
shovel up large tonnage OF ore In a
year when ore is easily sold and take
out no ore when consumers do not care
TO commit themselves. SO much mon
ey is tied up in mine, through costs
Of exploration. stripping. etc, that a
steady tonnage year by year must be
assured in order to make returns upon
the investment. II is impossible tor
the ore market to take account of min
or fluctuations In the demand fo- pig
iron.since customarily the ore must be
sold for the entire season, and in al.
vance of the opening OF navigation. IL
is.a natural sequence to present deyel-
opments that when reduced output
of merchant pig iron is necessitated in
the central west. the burden ~ idleness
will fall upon furnaces which have no
ore connections. They have the lesser
investment TO lie idle. and in the great
majority OF cases the investment has
been paid for more than once ont of
profits made years ago. Iron Trade
Review.
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