INTRODUCTION. 15 
foreign iron can be delivered in this country, even at $15 to $20 less cost 
per ton; and still leave the handsome profit of twenty-five per cent. to the 
manufacturer, notwithstanding the advantages which Great Britain pos- 
sesses in her cheap labor and in her capital. If this is true—and any one 
conversant with the business can satisfy himself of its correctness by 
investigating the subject—is it not inevitable, not only that establishments 
for the production of iron must rapidly spring up in the western country, 
where, in a year or two, four-fifths of the great demand for iron will be, 
and at those points that offer the greatest inducements in the required 
mineral resources, but it is moreover true, that the business’can hardly be 
overdone; since the increased production, for years to come, can hardly 
keep even pace with the annually increased consumption in railroad iron. 
So universally important is it to the interests of the United States, that 
this branch of business should be cherished, that it has recently called 
forth remarks from the executive. 
The same is true, to a certain extent, in very many other branches of 
metallurgy, and applies, indeed, more or less, to all manufactures. 
