Year: 1872

1 Iron is now commanding tue highest prices, the demand is lively and the crop short. It is puzzling to discover what Is exactly the cause of this iron famine. No explanation seems to he entirely satisfactory. Free tra- ders would attribute it to the tariff, but Eng fish iron of most sorts Is cheaper than Amer ican Tn the market. Railroad iron of English manufacture can be had from Sl0 to Sl2 ton cheaper than American, and there Is no prohibition upon its use except on roads that receive subsidies from the Government, where condition Is sometimes imposed that l American iron shall be used. Looking over the prices of coals We sec no marked increase in rates since 1856. Anthracite, which is the fuel most extensively used in Pennsylva nia in the manufacture of iron, is furnished to furnaces at about the same figures as l5 years ago Iron ore exists in plenty. But pig iron is worth to-day about $50 a ton, while 1t could be afforded few years ago at S25, and at profit. The cost of production of iron was formerly figured, according to the place where manufactured, at from Sl7.50 to S22 per ton Agreat deal depends upon the quail ity of the ore and the facilities for obtaining fuel Now, iron, in general terms, can be produced cheaper in large quantities than in small There Is in this business, as in all oth- others, economy in the production on a large scale-economy in the construction of works, economy in labor, and economy in the saving of fuel. Yet, now, when the demand is brisk and unlimited, prices are double. Why Is this ? We have seen no satisfactory eXplana- tion. It cannot be that the iron manufactur- CTS are coining the difference between old and present prices as clean profit, because the cost of producing iron and the processes are so we'll known that thousands of furnaces would be going up all over the country. Iron mines are common, and coal no more abundant in any part of the world. There is capital without limit for any profitable investment. The causes of high prices must be sought in an abnormal condition ofthings. In the pro- duction of iron before the war the cost of labor was reckoned at sixty per cent. of the value of pig iron and seventy five Der cent. in bars. Wages in furnaces and iron mills have not risen to such an extent as to double the price of iron, though they are considerably higher than they were when iron was cheap and the eight hour laws have had some effect in the advance of prices. Transportation on railroads of ores and coals is higher than it was, coal lands and iron beds arc being rap idly monopolized, thus tending to destroy competition and cheap rates, but the strikes of laborers render production uncertain and deter capital from entering a field where it is at the mercy of irresponsible parties. An ) other difficulty is in the tyrany of labor as socations, that, all over the United States, drives apprenticeship out of sight. The ranks of artisans are left unified that the demand may be greater and the wages of the limited number may be more. But after all, there are not causes enough apparent to account for the high prices of iron. The demand is great it is true, and prices may generally be said to

 be in proportion to the demard. The furna- ces of the United States are equal to the pro- duction of two million tons annually, and the

 increase may be to an unlimited figure.

 When 1t Is taken into consideration that there are sixty thousand miles of railroad in opera tion in the United States and that the miles are increasing at the rate of some seven thou sand year, 1t must be seen that the supply of iron required to compensate for wear alone is enormous. It is estimated that the demand for the present year will reach 6SO,0OO tons for railroads alone. But all over the United States the consumption of iron for columns, lintels, cornices, doorway and m short for the construction of whole buildings, for water and gas pipes for cities, bridges, building of vessels and the variety of machinery which the inventive genius of the age has put in motion and made a necessity, is increasing iIlu IedCHcS COioosai piopOi tiO'o' iN h'cPeho that great demand has exhausted the stock on hand, and the supply is dependent on the daily production of the furnaces and mills, which now need to be increased to meet the wants of the country. By reference to the Coal a. q Iron Record we discover that new | furnaces are going up in many parts of the country, and mills are increasing their capacity.

 The above, from the San Francisco Alta, we print on account of its general interest, and its perusal suggests to us to bring to mind the fact that we have some enormous deposits of iron in Arizona. Clarence King, | Esq, who made explorations here in lS65-66, in bis report to Col. R. s. Williamson, on the | geological features of Arizona, says, in speak ing of the formation of the Sierra Prieta range near Prescott: Accompanying the | granite is system of highly inclined (and even yerticaD rocks, which strike with the range, skirting its extreme base and forming | the material of the lower foothills. South | ward of Prescott this series of rock widen and finally occupy more than half of the eastern slope They arc of great importance | geologically, as being the chief auriferous | rock of the region, and enclosing parallel with their stratifcation the main quartz lodes of the Prescott and Big Bug districts. Metamorphic slates, mica sheets and quartz | ties are the principal rocks, but there is in- | terbeded a fine seam of micaceous Oxyd of iron, hematite of apparently great purity, | but unfortunately the want of coal forbids | the extraction of this most precious metal. It is quite possible, however, that the plateau strata lying east of the Rio Verde, and which are yet wholly unexplored, may be found to yield coal"

 That the surmises of Mr. King were well founded, is proven by the discovery, during the past year, of large veins of good coal near Camp Apache and on the headwaters of the little Colorado. Thoagh we do not expect to see rolling mills at work in Arizona for years to come, it is satisfactory to know that we have plenty of iron and coal in the country.

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