296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which the American iron-trade had heen so familiar scarce one year before, and 

 the business of buying and selling iron became close neighbor to that of gambling 

 in stocks. Report, Mai/, 1SS0. 



No. 1 pig-iron, which sold for $53 per ton at Philadelphia in Sep- 

 tember, 1872, sold for $24 in 1874, $21.25 in 187G, $16.50 in 1878, $41 

 in February, 1880 ; $25 in May, 1880 ; $26 in 1882, $18.50 in 1884, 

 $17.75 in 1885, and $18.50 in 1886. 



1882. The year 1881 was the most prosperous year American iron and steel 

 manufacturers have ever known. Report, June, 1882. 



1883. The extraordinary activity in our iron and steel industries, which com- 

 menced in 1879, culminated early in 1882. The reaction was not sudden, but 

 was so gradual and tranquil that for some time it excited no apprehension. In 

 November and December the market was greatly depressed. At the beginning 

 of December, 1881, the average price of steel rails at the (American) mills was 

 $60 per ton, but in December, 1882, the average price was only $39.* In all the 

 fluctuations of iron and steel that have taken place in this country, we know of 

 none so sweeping as this decline in the price of steel rails, if we except in 1879 

 and 1880, and many of these were entirely speculative. Report, May, 1883. 



The cause of this serious reaction was attributed, in the same re- 

 port, in great measure to the circumstance that " we had increased 

 our capacity for the production of most forms of iron and steel much 

 faster than the consumptive wants of the country had increased." 



1884. Since the publication of the last annual report, in May, 1883, the un- 

 satisfactory condition of the American iron-trade, as it then existed, has not im- 

 proved. It has steadily grown worse. Report, May, I884. 



1887. The year 1886 was one of the most active years the American iron- 

 trade has ever experienced. The improvement in demand which had com- 

 menced in the latter part of 1885 was well maintained throughout the whole of 

 1886. The production of the year in all the leading branches of the trade was 

 much the largest in our history. The remote causes of the revival in the pros- 

 perity of the American iron-trade which began in the last half of 1885, and still 

 continues, may be difficult to discover ; but one influential immediate cause is 

 directly traceable to the meeting of the Bessemer steel-rail manufacturers in 

 August, 1885, at which meeting a restriction of production for one year to avoid 

 the evils of over-production and ruinous prices was agreed upon. This action 

 was almost immediately followed by beneficial results to the iron-trade of the 

 whole country, and to many other branches of domestic industry. We do not 

 forget that the revival in railroad -building which commenced in the late months 

 of 1885, and has continued to the present time (1887), has been the influence 

 which most stimulated the demand for iron and steel ; but it was the action of 

 the Bessemer steel-rail manufacturers which put a check to the demoralization 

 of prices which prevailed prior to their meeting, and stimulated the managers 

 of existing railroads to hasten their arrangements for contemplated repairs and 

 equipments. An incident of our industrial history for 1886 was the large num- 

 ber of strikes among workingmen. More American workingmen were volun- 



* The average price of Bessemer steel rails, which commanded $39 per ton at Ameri- 

 can mills in December, 1882, declined to $25 in 1885. 



