FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN IRON INDUSTRY 103 



The action of the United States Stool corporation in lioldinj]; 

 prices witliin bounds durinjz; the stress of excessive demand 

 has no doubt had an influence in prolonging the period 

 of activity. Other makers have seen the wisdom of the 

 policy and, to some extent, adopted it. The real test will 

 come, of course, when demand slackens, and there is not 

 business enough to go around. A conservative policy pur- 

 sued then ])y leading makers will quickly adjust sui)ply to 

 demand. The radical one, which has usually been followed 

 in the past, of filling the big mills with work without regard to 

 prices, would provoke a war which would of necessity be 

 hardest on those with the greatest relative fixed charges and 

 outstanding securities. It is safe to assume that, with power 

 centered in fewer and stronger hands than ever before, better 

 counsels would prevail. 



There is no more popular belief with respect to the trusts 

 than that they are able to force a higher level of prices at 

 home b}^ selling their surplus abroad at greatly reduced prices. 

 Every man connected with the manufactiu'e of iron and steel 

 knows how complete is this fallacy so far as his own products 

 are concerned. As a matter of fact, for years past the makers 

 of American machinery and other products of iron and steel 

 have, in times of depression at home, realized their best prices 

 in the export lousiness. 



The question, so often raised, as to how long the present 

 period of great activity and high prices can last will be an- 

 swered by different authorities very much according to mental 

 habit and temperament. The conservative reasons from 

 past experience that booms are short lived; that we have 

 usually had five years of declining to two years of advancing 

 prices; that we must before long pay the penalty of the great 

 increase of production witnessed during recent years; that 

 over capitalization of companies and speculative trading can 

 have but one end, etc. The man of optimistic views sees 

 before us a period of national development, and of material 

 progress throughout the world, compared with which even 

 the great achievements of the past are tame. He reasons 

 that iron and steel lie at the very foundation of such progress, 

 and that it is the destiny of the United States to furnish a 



