116 AMERICAN AND BRITISH IRON TRADE 



Wood charcoal is used in smelting ; but this is found expen- 

 sive, and a tramway is now being made from the quarry to the 

 railway, with the view of transporting the iron stone to St. 

 Louis, in the neighbourhood of coal. When the ore can be 

 loaded directly from the rock, it may be placed on the cars at 

 the cost of 8d. or 9c?. a ton, and may be delivered at St. Louis 

 at a cost of about 4s. 



There is another iron mountain on Lake Superior, of equally 

 good quality and purity. An axle made of it was said to have 

 stood the following comparative test : blows before breaking, 

 Lake Superior iron, 177 : best Swedish, 77 : English Low 

 Moor, 46. The present cost of producing one ton of this pig 

 iron on the wharf is $18 ; the cost of the St. Louis, on the 

 wharf, is $16. 



At Pittsburg and Wheeling, where the principal iron works 

 of America are situated, they have the same natural advantages 

 for the economical production of the metal as in England, and 

 the supply is inexhaustible. And yet the United States pay 

 more than 5,000,OOOZ. a year for foreign iron. The native 

 manufacturer is protected by an import duty of 24 per cent., 

 and freight and charges will amount to 10 per cent. more. 

 And yet with this disadvantage of 34 per cent, against him, 

 the English iron-master can undersell the American at his own 

 door ! The Americans are careless in their management, they 

 have not sufficient capital embarked in their works, and they 

 expect larger profits than the English are contented with. 

 There is not much difference in the actual cost of labour : it may 

 be a trifle higher in America : but an American capitalist can- 

 not obtain the same constant supply of skilled labour as the 

 Englishman can command. The country is so vast, and the 

 temptation toother and easier pursuits so great, that there is 

 no constancy to certain employments as in England. The la- 

 bouring population in America is not stable, it is a shifting, 



