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Show THE IRON QUESTION. The failure of the Chamber of Commerce Com-merce to hold its session Thursday night, on account of so many of the members being out of town and other attractions that night, has delayed the consideration of several valuable reports now in the hands of the secretary. Prominent among these is the report of the committee on manufactures, manu-factures, winch, we understand, contains con-tains some very pertinent suggestions, and valuable accommendations. The Chamber of Commerce has demonstrated demon-strated that, with united action on the part of its members, much good for the benefit of Provo and Utah county in general can beeccomplished. We sincerely sin-cerely hope that this may be the case in acting upon the suggestions contained con-tained in the report of the commiltee referred to. Spring is here, and . ! no better time could be desired than riebt now to commence active work on some enterprise that w ill give employment to the laboring men in our midst, and the hundreds more who will come. We have on several oc casions alluded to the feasibility and practicability of establishing iron works in this county, and we think that steps to this end should be taken by the Chamber of Commerce. There are unexcelled beds of iron right at our very doo-s, and any amount of fluxes : for use in its manufacture. These iron fields are owned by the Utah Valley Iron & Manufacturing Co., and can, we are informed, be purchased, or at least sufficient stock bought to save them passing into the hands of eastern capitalists. These iron fields must be - ..... owned by the people of this valley, and suicidal on their part if they dilly-dally much longer, ieciiiuio,Ujer are no thumb-screws on the owners of these beds, and if an opportunity for their sale arises, there is no telling but what they will go. Already we understand under-stand certain propositions have been made, and inasmuch as the quality of the iron is the finest in the laud, and easy to get at. undoubtedly something will be soon done about it. Putblo has had her eye upon our iron for some time past, and say there is no reason why empty cars should return to Colorado Col-orado from Utah without, bringing in some returns to the railroad. TUs shown up to thti railroad officials will of course lead them to give a very low rate on iron ore, should the deposits j,o into outside hands. I Now then, in view of these facts, and they are not impossibilities by any means why cannot the Chamler of Commerce takf some action in the premises at the next session? We have no doubt but what tbey will. The immense value to our city and Territory of the development of this iron industry, we need not pause to name; but there is another aspect of tbi iron industry that interests, and should cumm.und the efforts of- not tue capitalists, not the manufacturer, nor the owner of real estate additions but of those men whose labor underlies un-derlies all these aud builds them up, the laborers. Consider a moment what there is in a ton of iron labor. It can oniy be the value of the iron and the coal in the mines; all the rest is labor. Even the transportation ueeded to get the ore and the coal and the coke to !the furnaces is but a form of labor. How much is the raw material worth while yet unainedi" Has it any value for mankind whatsoever? None. But let the hand of labor touch it and every home in the land is benefited, and the valueless iron ore leaps ahead of the precious metals. The value latt yen, .isi of sieel rails alone manufactured manu-factured in t the United States, was $60,000,00(0 . That is to say the steel rails made in0ur country last year were w..rtli morji a;i all the silver sil-ver du from all thn miiita 0f the Republic, Re-public, and twt ut-uve e;:rs ago"teie'l vras not one srtuel rail in.-ulf in America. Amer-ica. We say this .t-ih . industry, fur Proro and Utah county, possesses a vital interest for the man -who earns his daily bread by hia daily toil.- Why, a bar of iron worth i; v !,ilars wrought into iioi&fcshues is... w rtU ?10.00; wrought into needles $300.00; wrought into penknife blades is worth $3,uy00; wrought into watch springs is worth 1250,000.00. The hand that adds and Increases these values is the hand t f the laborer. Tbe opening of a furnace means opportunity and benefit to every wage earned in the county, yes, in Utah, for there is not an iron ; furnace in all this territory.-. It meai s that all the kindred iron industries follow its lead. Not pig iron alone, but iron bars, steel rails, stoves, builders' materials, and others will cluster about that furnace, and come walking out of our mountains obedient obedi-ent to the hand of lalor to enrich and b ess the people of this city and Territory. Now, iron rides into our city on the cars at a cost ef $20.50 freight alone for each ton. We can make it here at a cost of from $10 to $15 per ton as flexes published in Tbe DlS7A'CCiiwiIlshow,and tha margin between be-tween the cost produced here viz: $10 to $15 per ton and rthe price we now have to pay for it, $31.50 per ton, is a, direct' profit and benefit to the people! peo-ple! of this valley. To appreciate the advantages enjoyed by the eastern states, over Utah from the iron furnaces alone, notice the prices there and here. The last quotation of pig iron in New York was SI 5.50 per ton. In Salt Lake city $31.50 pec ton. For steel rails twenty years ajo, our railroads paid out m one year to importers $'3 000,C00.00. In that year, 1870. we imported 45S.OO0 tons. Last year, 1S90, we imported only 7,000 tous, and mauu'aclo -ed at home 1,036,000 tous," worth 560.000,000. It makes a good deal of di-Tereuce to a country whether it paj-s out for a certain article $8,000,000 a year or whether it ii able to produce double the amount of the same article for $60,000,000 in its own count: All the cost, or neVrly all, goes to the American Ameri-can working man. |