AMERICAN PRIMACY IN IRON AND STEEL 113 



ment it is seen that we have become masters in making and 

 using iron and steel in both peace and war, and that, as a 

 nation of over eighty milHons, we are one in the work we have 

 to do in the world's progress, then, naturally, something akin 

 to a panic seizes upon the minds of those who have so long 

 been accustomed to act without taking the United States into 

 account as an industrial and commercial power. 



The present position of the United States in making and 

 marketing her iron and steel is one of peculiar strength, even 

 among nations that are especially prominent in this branch 

 of production. For that reason, no other phase of our national 

 development has been more carefull}^ studied by competent 

 observers from abroad. There seems to be on their part a quite 

 unanimous agreement that our ascendency is clue to three ele- 

 ments of power: (1) The presence of high grade iron ores 

 and coking coal in unequaled abundance. (2) Superiority 

 in industrial organization, involving all the economies of pro- 

 duction and distribution, especially in mining the raw" ma- 

 terials, in handling them on a large scale from mine to furnace, 

 in standardizing steel forms and parts of machinery, and in 

 the mechanical equipment and co-ordination of manufactur- 

 ing establishments so as to enable each one to specialize with 

 a minimum of waste in a given line of production. (3) The 

 remaining element of strength in the position of the United 

 States, in its relation to the world market, lies in its having a 

 better home market than any other nation. Now^here is there 

 another group of people, equal in numbers and under the same 

 economic system, that can compare with the United States 

 as a consumer of iron and steel. We have for many years been 

 the world's leading builders of railroads; in the quantity of 

 steel consumed, this country has been foremost in bridge 

 building, and the same may be said of the use of structural 

 steel in the erection of high buildings. Onty in ship building 

 have w^e hitherto held a secondary position. Nowhere else do 

 iron and steel enter so largely into the manufacture of agri- 

 cultural implements. 



As regards volume of production of iron ore, the fii^st 

 position in the world belongs to the United States. This fact, 

 taken in connection with our similar rank in coal production, 



Vol. 6-8 



