822 [Assemble 



ted through every part of that district. The abstract of the cen- 

 sus returns of 1850, presents the aspect of these establishments, 

 their capacity and products. 



No occupation requiring an equal investment of capital, and 

 yielding the same returns, is so widely diffused in its operations, 

 or creates to labor more employment, or yields it higher remune- 

 ration, than the iron manufacture. The price of the raw mate- 

 rial in iron fabrics, is a trifling item of its value. That value is 

 essentially formed by labor, skill and disbursements. The term 

 of sis months, and more frequently a year intervenes, between 

 the commencement of these manufactures, and the realization of 

 the proceeds of the sales, and this period involves a perpetual 

 series of expenditures. 



Upon these facts the manufacturer predicates his argument, 

 that the policy of government should establish a fixed and specific 

 system of revenue, which shall give him data and a basis to form 

 his estimates and calculations in advance of his operations. 



No one unacquainted with the varied prbcesses of the iron 

 business, can conjecture its vast ramifications, or the multi- 

 plicity of laborers and artizans employed in its various depart- 

 ments. The owner of the wood, designed for charcoal, is bene- 

 fited by its sale. The chopper, the numerous operatives who 

 prepare the charcoal, the teamster who hauls the wood and 

 the coal, the measurer, the stacker, and those who occupy the 

 various intermediate stations in this branch of the operation, find 

 employment. The proprietor of the ore bed, the miner, the sepa- 

 rator, the laborers and mechanics who conduct the various pro- 

 cesses of the manufacture, the teams, t]ie transporter, the wharf- 

 ing^^r, the truckster, and sailors, who navigate the vessels which 

 transport it, are all supported by its disbursements. All these 

 masses are consumers of agricultural products. 



The iron business is exposed to the most extreme and » ften 

 disastrous fluctuations. Its history exhibits no cliange more 

 sij^nal and uninticipated than that \vhich has just occurred. It 

 has arisen at once, from the deepest depression, to the brightest 

 prosperity. 



