Year: 1874

The iron trade, beyond all others in this
latter half of the nineteenth century, Is sub
ject to the extremes of prosperity and ad-
versity. The history of the trade for the last
eight years, both in England and America,
affords striking confirmation of this truth.
The causes why the iron manufacturers are
almost always either much better or much
worse off than other manufacturers lie on the
surface. If times ale good the demand for
iron almost always exceeds the supply. Furnaces
and rolling-mlls cannot be built in day, and
it is work of time to open mines of iron ore
and coal In this age of steam and the
telegraph the whole civilized world moves as
though directed by single will. Ii one great
nation is prosperous, all are prosperous. De-
preston in one country soon affects all the
rest. Business is now as dull and Improbable
in England, France, and Germany as 1t Is
here We have only to consider the uses to
which iron is applied, and the tremendous
effects on this manufacture of the transition
from good times to hard times are at once
apparent. The building of railroads, steam
ships bridges, business structures in cities, and
machinery for new manufacturing establish
ments, has almost ceased, and is it to be
wondered at that there is now not sufficient
demand for iron to furnish work for half the
furnaces and rolling -millsf In good times the
iron trade is like a mountain torrent, into
which every drop of rain that falls seems to
find its way. In bad times the idle furnaces
are like the whitened stones and driftwoOd,
showing what the stream was and what it
will be again in due season.


The late prosperity and the present adversely
of the iron business are. therefore, not at all
difficult to account for. 1t is not, however,
surprising that many iron manufacturers should
have thought the prosperity would last forever
But it does seem little singular that body of
intelligent business men should have adopted
resolutions, as they did last week at Philadel-
phia, calling on Congress to assist them. We
sympathize fully with the widespread distress
of which the prostratiOn of the iron trade is
an unerring sign; but Congress has no more
power to cure that distress than it has
to give us good crops. We see no reason
for calling on Congress to interfere, and we
are quite certain that if Congress does any of
the things the iron manufacturers ask it to do,
it will do great harm. The proposition to finish
the Northern Pacific Railroad and build a
Southern Pacific Railroad at the expense of
the taxpayers is an absurdity. The United
States Treasury is not souD-house. Those
engaged in the manufacture of iron have no
peculiar claim on the charity of the Gov
ernment. Admiration of the paper currency
is also demanded. 1t is not necessary
for us to repeat here our objections to infa-
ton. Suffice it to say that we regard it as
dishonorable, destructive, and stupid in the
highest degree. From the nature of things, as
we have explained, the iron manufacture Is
subjected to the extremities of activity and
depression, and it is of vital importance to
those engaged in it to have the standard OF
value fixed rather than fuctuating.


The iron manufacturers further demand the
reimposition of the ten per cent reduction
which was made two years ago in the duties
on imports. 1t is well known that for more
than year the n-makers of this country
have been independent of foreign competition.
and it is not denied that such is the case now.
This change in the tariff is demanded solely
on the ground that foreign competition is
dreaded in the future. We have often heard
manufacturers deprecate changes in the tariff.
A bad tariff, they say, if left undisturbed, is