THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE AMERICAN IRON 



INDUSTRY. 



BY ARCHER BROWN. 



[Archer Brown, iron export; born in central New York; educated in Michigan; grad- 

 uated from Micliigan university literary department, 1S72; engaged in juurnalisiu in 

 Cincinnati for eight years, last five years as managing editor of the Cincinnati Daily 

 Gazette. In 1S81, joined William A. Rogers in forming the firm of Rogers, Brown 

 & Co., general pig-iron commission merchants. In 1895, removed to New York City 

 to superintend the eastern and export trade of the firm. 1897-8, spent five months 

 in Europe studying relations of .\merican iron to English and Continental markets. 

 Residence, East Orange, N. J. The firm of Rogers, Brown it Co. handles about one- 

 third of the product of the blast furnaces of the United States that comes to the open 

 market, their sales running about a million and a half tons a year. Mr. Brown's 

 remarkable grasp of the American iron-producing situation lends unusual importance 

 to his review of the field which was written for the Engineering Magazine.] 



The development of the iron industry of the United 

 States has been marked with surprises. From complete 

 dependence upon the old world the country has leaped to 

 a pre-eminence so complete that even its rivals believe and 

 tremble. In the great railroad building period 1870-72 Eng- 

 land furnished the rails and other materials at prices two or 

 three times above those which are now deemed abnormally 

 high. Then England produced three times as much iron and 

 steel as the United States. Since then Germany has chal- 

 lenged the supremacy of Great Britain, and passed her in 

 a decade of remarkable grow^th. And yet, in 1902, the 

 United States produced more ii'on than England, Ger- 

 many and France combined. If we add to this statement 

 another fact, viz., that even this vast production is not suffi- 

 cient for home requirements, and that the United States is 

 to-day, in spite of a stiff tariff, the best customer in iron and 

 steel that Europe has, credulity is taxed to the limit. 



This unparalleled growth has not been without its back- 

 sets. The ups and downs of the trade have been so marked 

 as to call from its chief prophet the expression that iron is 

 either a prince or a pauper. Indeed the vicissitudes have 

 been so great, and the ill starred enterprises so numerous, 

 that capital has always had a peculiar dread of it, and con- 



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