Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1882 — THE IRON TRADE. [ARTICLE]

THE IRON TRADE.

It is Represented to Be in a Very Depressed Condition, The Secretary of the American Association Thinks the Reports Exaggerated. A number of iron and steel mills in all iparts of the country are to cloie down within a month or two for reasons which may be divided into two classes: F.rst, the depression in the iron and steel traffic; and, second, the anticipation of free-trade legislation on the part of the next Congress. As to the l itter conside ation, Judge Kel’ey, of Pennsylvania, says that the next session of Congress can not extend beyond seventy days, and that even were the Comnfttee on Ways and Means disposed to refo m the tariff it would be an impossibility to get a bi.l through n the time that would lie left a r ter dispo ing of the appropriation bids and the t undre is of measures that will necessarily encumber the table. In reference to the depr'Si-don in the business Ethan A Hitchcock, Pre-ident of the St Louis Ore and Steel Company, says: The price of steel rails’ has fallen from S6O to $45 per ton, and pig ir n only froip $25.5 J to $24. The fall in st cl rails was due, he said, to overproduction. In one year the estimated capacity of the «teel m'lls of the United Stateshad increased £oo,< 00 tons. The probable demand for next year would be about 1,000,000 to is, as against a possible outputof 2,150,00) tiu& If (he demand should prove to be 50 per cent, of the capacity, all the mills could not work full time. Ana the probability was that next year there would be but litt e railroad building, and rails would be needed for reconstruction and repair alone. G.oomy appreheuirians are entertained by other firms. The manager of the Bethleh m (Pa.) Iron and Steel Works says the materials produced at his works are about as low as they can go, and the outlook is a dull one. Gen. Lilly, of Mauch Chunk, says the business outlooc is gloomy, orders given for bar iron having been countermanded in a large number of instances, and there being uncertainty on all s'des. The President of the Thomas Iron Company, in Pennsylvania, reports a similar condition of things at Catasaqua and Hokendauqua. The large works of the Lackawanna Company, of Scranton, Pa , haye shortened their time schedule. The laborers throughout the Lehigh valley are anxious about the future.

These apprehensions are not shared, however, by all the manufacturers. The Tyrone (Pa) forges resume operations next week, and will run on full time. In Coatesville, Pa, though the proprietors consider the outlook gloomy, all the mills are busy and plenty of orders are on hand. The output of the Edgar Thompson steel works, Pittsburgh, has been reduced to two-thirds of their capacity, and. p the company say that among the manufacturers the question is the survival of the fittest, or, rather, the fattest pocket They could sell at $42 a ton if they could get coke and ore and wages down, but had never gone below $45. In Bridgeton, N. J., the iron foundries are very busy. The Cleveland (Ohio) rolling-mills are not to be shut down, and the Bay View works, near Milwaukee, which have not made any steel rails for some time and shut down the iron-rail mill three weeks ago, will not be affected except through the sympathy inevitable to all lines of the iron business. The North Chicago, the Union Iron and Steel mills, the Joliet and the Vulcan mill of St. Louis are still running, but will have a conference with their hands about J an. 1 relative to wages for the ensuing year, when the employers will probably demand a decrease of from 20 to 25 per cent, on present rates. The trouble is attributed in Chicago to the Scranton company, which cut prices from $45 to $42 a ton, since which time sales have been made at S4O, the price at which they are now quoted in Eastern circulars, and at which the President of the Union Iron and Steel Company says they cannot be made here. A Philadelphia dbp'tch says: Thorough inqui' y all over the city and in all the leafing man ifacturinx rente s of the State do not warrant the opinion tha~ the iron and steel trade ‘s in as bad condition as has been represented Indeed, James M. S.vank, the Secretary of the American Iron and Steel Association, and one of the best-informed me i in the country, said to-duy: “It has been greatly exaggerated. Tne steel-rail industry is in a very depressed condition, and the d mand fi r othi-rir n and steel products is not equal to the expectations of a few months ago, bll there is no occasion for any excitement or alarm. Prices have been gradually declining since last spring; there lias been no sudden decline, not even in steel rails. Ido not believe that the present Congress, nor ihe Congress which has just been elected, will be so unwise as greatly to reduce the duties upon iron and steel, and hence I feel entirely hopeful of the future of those industries. Low prices are not necessarily an evil ” A Washington dispatch states that it is believed there “by many Congressm n and others who favor a revision of the tariff laws that the sensational reports of a general suspension of steel production are designed to influence Congress against any reduct on of the measure o ‘ protection which the iron and steel interests already enjoy. Indications are not lacking to show that there is a good deal of method and system in the attempt to frighten the country into the convic’ ion that nothing short of a prohibitory tariff will prevent a general coilapse of the iron and steel m inufactories of the United States.”