UNIVERSITY OF 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 AI URBANA-CHAMPAISN 
 
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 https://archive.org/details/costofironpriceoOObake 
 
[From the New York “ Iron Age."] 
 
 f 
 
 THE 
 
 COST OF IRON & THE PRICE OF LABOR. 
 
 THIRD EDITION — Revised and Enlarged. 
 
 Printed for the Eastern Iron Masters’ Association. 
 
 We publish below a very interesting letter, and valuable sta- 
 tistics, from Mr. Wm. E. S. Baker, of Philadelphia, Secretary and 
 Treasurer of the Eastern Iron Masters’ Association, and Secretary 
 of the Duncannon Iron Co., upon the present condition of the pig 
 and bar iron production, and the prices of labor, co-operation, &c. 
 
 Philadelphia, June 19, 1871. 
 
 Editor ‘ Iron Age New York — Dear Sir: — Covered herein, please 
 find tables of the cost of ore, coal, limestone and labor to the ton of pig 
 iron, together with that of all contingencies, showing the total cost of 
 pig iron at the furnace bank from 1850 to 1871, inclusive, and also the 
 details of the cost of bar iron at the mill for the same period. These 
 figures speak for themselves, and are perfectly reliable. The facilities 
 for compiling them show what advantages are likely to ensue from 
 frequent meetings of our new Iron Masters’ Association, by spreading 
 before its members useful information concerning the iron business. 
 In the accompanying statistics the items of pig iron cost are averaged 
 from a group of furnaces in Central Pennsylvania, close to coal and 
 
 
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 ore. The merchant bar iron cost is the average of mills in the Schuyl- 
 kill region, not far from pig iron, but more distant from soft coal. The 
 average for both pig and merchant bar iron is below the average cost for 
 the whole State of Pennsylvania , and in neither case is there any charge 
 included for interest on Capital Stock. A ton of raw materials, ore, 
 coal or limestone, will cost in the ground , but a trifle more to-day than 
 it did twenty-five years ago, while the total cost of pig iron has more 
 than doubled in that period, showing that nearly the whole of the in- 
 creased cost is for labor — labor in mining, in transportation, and in 
 working the materials into the saleable product. So that while in 
 Pennsylvania, pig iron is costing about $29.00 a ton, in Great Britain the 
 cost is less than half of that , and even then yields a profit to the manu- 
 facturer. The reason of this is, because of the difference in the cost of 
 labor. And but a small part of this difference can be accounted for by 
 the increased cost of living, arising from taxation or a depreciated cur- 
 rency. Hence a question here arises of vital importance to every 
 manufacturer and workman in the United States, viz.: Is it possible 
 
 for two countries so intimately related in business as are Great Britain 
 and the United States , to continue for a long period to produce the same 
 article at so great a difference in cost? We think not, and believe that 
 there must and will be an approximation of cost in the two countries, 
 either by a reduction in wages paid American skilled labor, or an ad- 
 vance in foreign labor, unless home labor shall have increased protection 
 from the Government. An advance in labor abroad will be but to lessen 
 the profits of the wealthy iron masters. To reduce labor in this coun- 
 try, where it is conceded that the iron manufacturers are making little 
 or no profit, will be to decrease the comforts and privileges of the 
 workmen. The alternative will be for home capital to abandon the 
 iron manufacture for some more stable and profitable branch of indus- 
 try, to the depreciation, if not ruin of the agricultural and other sur- 
 rounding interests depending upon iron. Twenty-five years ago our 
 cost price was about what the English cost is to-day. But the physi- 
 cal, moral, social and mental condition of the American workman has 
 much improved since then. He is a free citizen of a great Eepublic, 
 with duties and responsibilities unknown abroad. His wants have 
 multiplied, and his increased pay has enabled him hitherto comfortably 
 to meet all demands. Our sympathies are with him, and we desire 
 
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 him to receive his full share of the advantages of the business, but it 
 can hardly be contradicted that his present prosperity is at the expense 
 of capital , the manufactured article having declined in price much more 
 in proportion than the price of skilled labor. 
 
 The contrast between the condition of our mechanics and workmen 
 twenty-five years ago, and at the present day will show so marked an 
 improvement as greatly to encourage the friends of progress. Then, 
 the workingman lived in a one-storied shanty; to-day, the Building 
 Association gives the temperate, steady man, at small cost, a comforta- 
 ble and convenient home. His dress was of the coarsest material, and 
 his food limited to the plainest dishes ; but liberal wages enable him to 
 clothe his family respectably, and to supply his table not only with ne- 
 cessaries, but luxuries. His mind was contracted, and he was very 
 ignorant ; but free schools have educated him, and made some of his 
 children professors of learning, while others occupy the most honora- 
 ble positions in the land. He could seldom read, much less afford to 
 buy a daily newspaper ; to-day, his own sons edit and publish those 
 papers, spreading before him the world’s record of the past day before 
 his work begins. He had neither surplus means nor suitable clothing 
 with which to travel; now he can afford to take his seat in the rail car, 
 the peer of the greatest. A few months’ sickness or lack of employ- 
 ment reduced him to beggary ; in this age, his saving fund deposit, or 
 lodge, relieves him ; while a physician of his own selection attends his 
 family, and he is surrounded with comforts, privileges and blessings 
 unknown to his father. His moral nature, also, has undergone remark- 
 able improvement. The Sunday-school has elevated him, given him 
 clearer ideas of responsibility, opened new fields of thought, and 
 taught him to abandon many vices and to cultivate the nobler faculties 
 of the soul. Where once was the card-table and the brewing-tub, can 
 now be found the melodeon and the sewing machine. Temperance, de- 
 bating and charitable societies, literature, art, music and a free press 
 have all helped in his promotion, and his means enabled him in a man- 
 ly, independent way, to participate in and enjoy his improved condi- 
 tion. His son to-day is generally well educated, sometimes a classi- 
 cal scholar — his daughter is often a young lady of growing taste and re- 
 finement. Tens of thousands of American workmen have advanced 
 themselves to the position of capitalists , as all in this country have a 
 
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 chance to do, and energy , sobriety and integrity will promote others. 
 In my judgment, however, I fear that “Labor Unions” are great 
 obstacles to his advancement, because the unskilful and unsteady man 
 is made by the Unions fully equal to the best man in the mills — 
 with the same wages and privileges. The only true bond of “Union” 
 that will be a mutual benefit to capital and labor, is the brotherhood of 
 man, founded upon the broad principles of Christian charity and justice. 
 “ All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
 even so to them.” 
 
 I sincerely wish that our American workmen, mechanics and miners 
 would appreciate their advantages, and co-operate with their employers 
 for the benefit of both ; but they appear not always to understand the 
 true relation that should exist between capital and labor, and in many 
 ways they seem to be undermining the very system which enabled 
 them to rise, and that too with natural resources in the United States 
 sufficient to supply the world with iron and steel of a superior quality. 
 The American capitalist invariably rejoices in the prosperity of Ameri- 
 can labor, and to insure it contributes millions of dollars yearly. Not 
 only are American iron works, workshops and dwellings the best 
 adapted in the world to their purposes, but our capitalists have built 
 free Libraries, Institutes, Hospitals, Colleges and Churches in every 
 State, spending their money for the benefit of others, with a freedom 
 unknown in other countries. Our own Peabody provided for the London 
 poor; while Girard, Vassar, Cooper, Cornell, Stewart, Pardee, Packer, 
 Crozer, Askin, and a host of others, have made princely donations to 
 these institutions ; and the sons of our industrious workmen can be 
 found in every college, obtaining gratuitously the priceless boon of a 
 good education. 
 
 Now, for a moment, look at the present condition of the same 
 branch of labor abroad. In France, men, women and children work in 
 the mines and mills, half fed, and poorly clothed, without culture, do- 
 mestic happiness, social enjoyment or sufficient pay — the wages of all 
 being required to enable them to live. The French workman is little 
 more than a slave, bound for life to one mill, unable to emigrate, and 
 powerless to improve his social condition. In Belgium nearly the same 
 state of affairs exist, although efforts are making to educate the child- 
 ren, but they have the poorest and cheapest living that will maintain 
 
5 
 
 life, and hence these two countries can produce iron cheaper than any 
 other nation. In Great Britain, under the pressure of Christian ef- 
 forts to improve the workmen, labor is better paid to-day than ever be- 
 fore, but British capitalists are struggling to retain control of the iron 
 markets of the world, and to crush all foreign competition ; and they 
 are partially succeeding in both, but only by exporting iron of the 
 worst quality and cheapest cost, and by grinding the price of labor down 
 to the lowest possible living point. Women are found in the mills, doing 
 men’s work, at 30 cents a day, while men labor for 65 cents or less 
 and even little children toil for a few pennies, to help keep the family 
 above the swelling ranks of pauperism. JSTo wonder that the British 
 workman is desponding and hopeless. He knows that he has no chance 
 in the race of life, and we can but refer to his straw-roofed hovel, his 
 black bread and meagre fare, the habitual drunkenness of himself and 
 often of his family ; his ragged, uneducated and vicious children, his 
 ignorance and gross superstition, his abject poverty and depend- 
 ence, his deeply seated vices and often his fearful crimes! This is a 
 dark picture, and God forbid that American workmen, by low wages 
 and unsteady employment, should ever be so reduced. And yet we can 
 not be blind to the fact that the whole tendency of things to-day is to- 
 wards a reduction in the price of labor. It is evident, therefore, that 
 home products can not compete with the products of foreign labor, 
 while home labor receives twice the pay for the same work. 
 
 I claim that every man is entitled to education, domestic comfort, 
 freedom of person and liberty of conscience — and he has a right to suf- 
 ficient wages to secure and maintain himself and family in these privi- 
 leges of a freeman ; and whoever denies these to a man of industry and 
 integrity violates the plainest laws of humanity and of God. 
 
 It is possible to effect some reduction in the cost of American iron, 
 independent of the prices for labor, and every thoughtful man should 
 remember that forced stoppages of a mill by strikes, not only increase 
 the cost of iron, but tend to destroy the business of the mill ; and if the 
 fear of such stoppages compel the owners to keep on hand heavy piles 
 of finished goods, the cost is further increased by loss of interest ; and 
 further, there might be less waste of materials, and more care of the 
 tools and expensive machinery, and we would like to see a careful 
 training of apprentices from the workman’s family, and every means 
 
6 
 
 should be used to improve the quality of the iron. In Great Britain ef- 
 forts are making to withdraw the women and children from the mills 
 and to improve the condition of the workman ; and that will certainly 
 advance the cost abroad, and help us somewhat ; but to perpetuate the 
 present privileges of our workmen, which have been secured by liberal 
 wages, every man should feel that he has a part to do — and at once 
 change his course towards his employer, cultivate a friendly regard for 
 him, and save him a dollar wherever possible. 
 
 When the chance offers, I would advise every workman to buy a 
 few shares in the Capital Stock of the company for which he works, so 
 that, by a joint ownership, capital and labor may work together in 
 harmony and peace for the benefit of both, and thus reduce the cost of 
 iron down nearer to the price of the imported article. This sort of “ Co- 
 operation” would be of great advantage to all interested, and as our 
 special laws provide no suitable plan for a union of capital and labor, it 
 would produce the happiest results, if the workmen in any mill, to- 
 gether with the surrounding artizans, farmers, &c., would buy upon 
 long credits, payable by instalments, say one-fifth of the capital stock 
 of the company, with one-fifth representation in the Board of Directors, 
 and one fifth interest in all profits. A mill economically managed in 
 this way, with every man in the neighborhood personally interested in 
 its success, (so as the sooner to pay the debt due on his stock, and get 
 full possession of the certificates) — owning its own store, dwelling 
 houses and coal yard, and practically getting rent and all supplies at 
 cost, would be one of the most prosperous mills in the country , defying 
 competition from all quarters. 
 
 The recent reduction of $2 per ton on the duty upon pig iron has 
 done much to demoralize the iron business. Just about enough iron 
 has been sent here at the reduced duty to break down our market. 
 Nearly the whole $2 a ton has been added to the profits of the aristo- 
 cratic manufacturers of the old country. Now, with a prospective de- 
 cline of gold to par, and a threatened further reduction of the tariff, with 
 outrageous evasions and violations of existing laws in our custom 
 houses, constant fluctuations in all values whenever it suits the pur- 
 poses of the gold gamblers, and the arrival almost daily upon our shores 
 of cargoes of inferior foreign iron, it is not difficult to understand why 
 the cry comes from every quarter of dull trade and unprofitable busi - 
 
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 ness. Some of us can remember the dark days of 1841 preceding the 
 increased tariff on iron, when, to serve workmen from actual suffering , 
 the iron masters of Pennsylvania printed and circulated due bills, re- 
 deemable months afterward, in amounts of 10 cents and upward. Free 
 trade did it then , and free trade will do it again , carrying in its wake de- 
 vastation and ruin to all branches of home industry. We can find a 
 remedy for all this in an increased duty upon iron and all other pro- 
 ducts of foreign labor which compete directly with the products of Ameri- 
 can labor. And just here we can remind our lawmakers that the Brit- 
 ish manufacturers, with all their free trade theories, are at present 
 struggling to obtain “protection” against the cheaper products of Bel- 
 gian labor. We claim the same “ protection n against the products of the 
 pauper labor of Britain. What protection we now have did not pre- 
 vent the importation of 40 per cent, of all the iron consumed in the 
 United States in 1870! while some of our American mills were perma- 
 nently stopped , and others remained idle part of the year, from inability 
 to compete with inferior foreign iron. A continuance of the present 
 state of affairs will soon prove the correctness of these views, and, I 
 fear, produce in this country what is to be greatly dreaded, the pros* 
 tration, and perhaps degradation of American labor. 
 
 Very respectfully, &c., 
 
 WM. E. S. BAKER, 
 
 122 Race Street , Philadelphia. 
 
 COMPARATIVE PRICES OF LABOR-1871. 
 
 English. 
 
 Pudlers, per ton $2.05 
 
 “ Helpers, per ton 78 
 
 Heaters, per day . 1.90 
 
 “ Helpers, per day 97 
 
 Rollers, per day 3.00 
 
 Day Laborers, per day 78 
 
 Carpenters, “ 1.40 
 
 Masons, “ 2.00 
 
 American. 
 
 $4.00 
 
 2.00 
 
 4.37 
 
 2.07 
 
 5.10 
 
 1.75 
 
 3.00 
 
 3.25 
 
 J. A Wagenseller, Printer, 23 N. Sixth St., Philada.