A ROOM IN THE IRON TRADE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4259, 19 January 1901, Page 7 (Supplement)

A ROOM IN THE IRON TRADE.

Iu the last issue of the. "Forum” there is an article by Mr Archer Brown on tne ■■Revival and Reaction in Iren,” exp laming that the iron and steel industry or America has, within tho space of a year

and a-half. witnessed two movements, each unexpected, sensational and tarreaching in consequences. The first was tho great upward swing of prices m 181)9; tho second, tho headlong plunge downward in 1900. The oldest and wisest in the trade did not anticipate the' "boom,” nor believe in it unt-il it was well under way, and the most conservative were taken by surprise at rno suddenness and extent of the reaction. After giving the details of these movements, the writer expresses his conviction that the American iron and steel industry, instead of having reached its climax, is on the eve of a greater development than anything the world has seen. In support of this belief ho declares that the industry is absolutely impregnable, so far as the rest of the world is concerned; and he concludes his survey of tho prospect by stating that tho possibilities of the future of the iron and steel industry of America sometimes engage the imagination of our technical writers.

If wc base our calculations upon the ratio of growth of the past, wo quickly run into figures that stagger the mind. Nearly half, a century ago, before America had reached the half-million-ton mark ui production, Mr Abram S. Hewitt, in an address before tiie American) Geographical Society, predicted. that tlto world would make 28,000,000 tons pigirou in 1.895, and 48,000,000 tons in 1915. On this basis the output tor 1899 should have been 35,000,000 cons, but it actually reached 40,000,000 tons, and the consumption, gauged by depletion of stocks, was nearly a million, tons more. la 1890 Mr Edward Atldnson estimated the world’s pig-iron output of 1900'at 40,000,000 tons. Both he and Mr Hewitt merely used the rule of doubling output in every twenty years. If the same law is to hold in the futoro, the world will require 80,000,000 in 1920; and if America maintains her rate of progress, relatively speaking, she will supply much mere than half of it. That would mean trebling in the nest two decades our already vast plant of furnaces, steel works, rolling mills and irou foundries, as well as the product of our ore and coal mines. Tire most optimistic believer in American destiny and progress can scarcely bring himself to these'figuras. . But we must not be too hasty in rejecting them. Mr Hewitt has been quoted recently as saying that the world is practically rebuilt three times in a century. We arc now demolishing in. New York the nrst iron live-proof buildings erected here thirty-five years ago, replacing them with modern structures. Wo havj scarcely commenced to use steel in ordinary house construction., Germany being far m advance of us in this particular'. Every clay new uses of iron anu steel are found, and construction of every character is yearly growing heavier. One concern now takes from tne Carnegie ■ Company a thousand tons a day of steel plate to use in pressed steel cars —an industry unknown until two years ago. The cry in every part of the world is for more ships to transport the rapidly growing commerce. No one doubts that the United States, in spite of its poor record of ship-building, since the war, is destined to fill a groat role in tbo building of the merchant marine. Those who have watched the progress of construction of new ship yards at Camden, New London and elsewhere, as well as the extension of existing plants at Philadelphia, Ncwbort Nows and San Francisco, are aware that the Clyde and Belfast builders are! soon to have rivals in the full sense of the term. A great ship in these'days, might almost bo said to contain noth-’ ing” but steel and irou. The prepar.i-. tions for war by most of the nations af the earth aro on an ever-increasing -scale, anti-the groat mass of the materials required in the manufacture of ordnance and small arms comes from our Steel works and foundries. In a recent address Mr Edward Atkinson, full of the .spirit of expansion, again dealt with the future of the iron and steel industry. He stated that the extension of railroad lines in ■ this country in the next fifteen years would carry the mileage from 200,000 to 300,000 miles; and President John ii. Cowen, cf the' Baltimore and Ohio ilaiiroad, declares this to be conservative, if the construction of electric lines be included. The era of bridge building has just begun. An authority on this subject stated recently that the" requirements of the South alone tor bridge-building material would enormously increase in the near future. Scarcely a railroad bridge south cf the Ohio and Potomac rivers is strong enough to-day to support a train of the new 100-ton "cars with the massive locomotive required to pull them. Tiro Southern people have been content until now to ford their streams _ when travelling in the country; hut, in the past year or two, with steadily increasing wealth, a JemaSd has sprung up for improved roads, and for bridges to correspond. A hundred other illustrations might be cited of the tendency of the consumption of iron and steel to grow not at .the normal rate of population and general manufactures, but in an' accelerating ratio.