Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 106, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1899 — SUPPLY AND DEMAND [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

ONE OF THE DRAWBACKS OF EXCEPTIONAL PROSPERITY. Famine in Structural Steel and Iron an Illustration of the Phenomenal Conditions Attend ins the Restoration of a Protective Tariff. The famine in structural steel and iron Is perhaps the most striking among the phenomena attendant upon McKinley prosperity. Nothing like it was ever before known In this country, and certainly not in any other country. Here we have every iron and steel producing plant in the United States working to its utmost capacity, and yet there is a big shortage in the supply, so great is the demand in the many lines of construction. Because of the Inability of the mills to fill orders, or even to meet the time requirements of contracts already entered Into, we are told by the New York Herald that in New York the structural work upon many big office buildings is at a standstill, and public schools that were to have been opened for the fall term will remain uncompleted; in Philadelphia work upon warships for foreign powers is at a halt; in the West the agricultural implement makers are at their wits’ ends for material and are renewing their demands for steel for next year’s delivery, and from every section contractors and builders are calling for impossible thirty and sixty day deliveries of mill products. The shortage In structural material, lays the Herald, Is so serious that contractors are vainly offering bonuses to the manufacturers to push their work. It is but a short time since structural Iron and steel were advanced $5 a ton, and it Is predicted that there will be another increase within a few days. According to the experts, the railroads are the most seriously affected by this remarkable state of the iron and steel market, and already American agents are at work in the English market obtaining options upon Scotch steel. The demand for mill products Is increasing dally, and those who are responsible for the supply frankly admit that they are unable to cope with the abnormal situation. Contractors and builders are growing desperate and are dally begging those who hold them in bond to release them from obligations the fulfilment of which has been made Impossible by conditions for which they are not responsible. From Chicago it Is reported that railroad tonnage Is on a scale never before equaled, and is still mounting higher. As for the Iron and steel trade, the exports for June actually fell off owing to the great home demand. The domestic requirement was so enormous that material could not be spared for foreign shipment. The demand has caused the resurrection of mills believed to be dead. Old plants that have been idle for years, chiefly from competitive causes, have been reopened and put In operation. If a manufacturer wants material three months hence he must buy now and pay the prices that are current The clamor for materials is In no way relieved. There have been large sales of pig Iron for delivery In 1900. Iron bars cannot be bought under four months* delivery from the mill. Vessel owners of Chicago hiving suitable bottoms for the transportation of iron and steel cannot fill orders. Two years ago prices were 45 to 50 cents a ton for the haul from Lake Superior to Lake Erie. Now the rate for ore from Duluth to Lake Erie is $1.30 a ton, and will go higher. In Philadelphia the big shipyards, notwithstanding the boom In their industry, have been compelled to lay off | hundreds of men because of delay in the arrival of material. Extensive building operations have been halted and others abandoned. Charles McCaul said: “To my knowledge certain big building concerns within the last few days have tried to contract with local companies for structural steel, to be delivered a year from now at prevailing prices. The proposals were refused.” The Phoenix Bridge Company is liable to a penalty of SSO per day for failure to complete the big bridge over the Schuylkill River at Gray’s Ferry. The delay is due to the steel famine. The director of public works has decided not to enforce the penalty. Pittsburg manufacturers of iron and steel say they see no relief for New York contractors. The demand is so far ahead of the output that it will take many months for the trade to catch up. The Carnegie Steel Company, it is said, will not take orders for structural steel ‘for delivery under twelve months. Last week S3B a ton was paid for billets. Two years ago the price was sl4. The plg lron manufacturers will not quote prices for delivery this year. The iron and steel industry, it will be remembered, is protection’s biggest and healthiest child. It is an Industry which free traders twenty-five or thirty years ago declared could not be built up by a protective tariff. Yet to-day the United States leads the world in the production of iron and steel. Big as the industry bas become, it is not able to supply the requirements of the great home market in these times of McKinley prosperity. As an index of the general conditions that have grown out of the restoration of the American policy the iron and steel situation is interesting and instructive. Dlnglsx Law Receipts. The Democrats have been forced to cease asserting that the Dingley law is a failure as a revenue producer. After its enactment .there was a continual Democratic bowl for some months that It was wholly inadequate ito supply revenue suffl cient for the government’s needs. The friends of the

taw replied that ft would more than, meet the exoectations thev entertained of it after business had adjusted itself to the new tariff regulations. How their prediction has been borne out is best shown by the statistics of the receipts from easterns during the last few years, which are as follows: 1892 $177,452,964 Iff 1893 206355,016 73 1894 131318,530 62 1895 152,158,617 45 1896.. 160,921,75167 1897.. 176,564,126 65 1898 149,819,594 25 1899 206,141,224 63 It will be observed that the figures for the fiscal year 1899 are the largest in the list, surpassing even the total for the phenomenal year of 1893, which was the highest previous record. This, too, though we were at war with Spain during the earlier part of the fiscal year of 1899. But, large as were the customs receipts during the past year, there Is an almost certain prospect that they will be exceeded in the coming year. The receipts for the month of July were nearly $2,000,000 more than a year ago and the indications are that August will show an increase of $3,000,000 or $4,000,000, the receipts for the first nineteen days being about $3,000,000 in excess of the same period last year.—Milwaukee Sentinel. Democracy and Trusts. Protection is a Republican policy, the Democrats have formed the habit of denouncing It, and they think they must keep It up, with or wi.tho it reason and sense. And so, with the splendid record of protection staring them in the face, and being unable to point to a single fact that is not to its credit, they wildly re-echo Havemeyer’s flippant utterance with some such scheme as this in their heads: The people like the protective tariff; let us try to make them hate it by circulating the absurd He that it is the mother of trusts. The hypocrisy of all this is quite as comical as it is revolting. It shows what a poverty stricken old concern the Democratic party is. Free silver is dead. Flag hauling as an issue is worse than no issue at all Fantastic yarns about trusts and the tariff are the only remaining, resort The Democracy grabs at this grotesque banner and flourishes it frantically, hoping to rattle voters and muddle their thinking apparatus. But the dodge will not work. It Is a confession of weakness and a proclamation of stupidity. The people see through the game and will coldly keep out of it preferring to retain their prosperity, their open workshops, their 100-cent dollars, their sterling Americanism and their respect for the flag-of their country—Rochester (N. Y.) Democrat and Chronicle.

“Why do you suspect he meditates! treason to the free sliver cause?” I “He is growing conservative—speaksi of it as the ‘misdemeanor of ’73.”’— l St Louis Globe-Democrat • j A Transient Commercial Craze. ■ If we believed that the creation ofl trusts would be a permanent feature ofl our economic system, we might sharfl in the alarm expressed by some tlmifl persons. We do not; we regard the J as a merely transient commercial craze, which will die of exhaustion The commerce of this country is altß gether too great to be kept under con trol by any one set (>f men acting upcfl a single Industry. The trade of tlB United States has passed that stafl just as it has passed the stage the wheat product of this country cafl be cornered.—Seattle (Wash.) Post-I® telllgencer. * 9 Benefits the Work inarm au. It would be as foolish to blame ents who have reared a child In tfl| best possible manner for his turning ■I evil ways after he has grown to hood as to blame th'e tariff for buildißl up a splendid American Industry, gß| Ing employment to 30,000 A:uerl<®| workingmen, because avaricious nfl secure control of It and enter Int<fl| wicked combination. not, the tin plate trust can makeßS money without employing the workjß| men and paying them for their —Tacoma (Wash.) Ledger. 9B The Peer* Full Breath. The year 1899 may be the time of our “second wind." lß|| year we took a deep breath of pro®H tion prosperity and eclipsed all ous records. This year there was □®|| Ing to do but to eclipse 1898. andSS proceeded to do it. We have takeißE| the full, deep breath which ai -vays SB rles the runner In a race to Our commercial rivals may as drop out, for the close of 1899 wil® the United States the winner tß||| good margin In the industrial Two of a Kind The devil rebuking sin and Mr. ®||| emeyer, the president'of trust, rebuking trusts, are two ■ kind. When the devil is recogniz® authority in ethics Mr. Ilwvei® may be recognized as authortO trusts. Not until them will intel® American votes be influenced sSy a protective tariff by the railing a® trusts by the president ot one <■ greatest trusts on the