Show ILON AND STEEL the greatest boon boom in iron and stoel steel in OM ciry the greatest calamity that has befall befallen cn the calamity howler is that there is 13 no calamity for him to howl bowl over the statement has often been made that the passage of the wilbon bill would paralyze par alyse industries etc wool week after week Drad bradstreets streets financial journal a recognizer recognised I 1 authority proves this statement to be absolutely without foundation the ful following loing is a specimen article taken B isue ique of sept 7 1895 1805 it is doubtful if even the most sanguine among the manufacturers of iron and steel foresaw six months ago such euch an advance in cices pi ices and such an increase in the volume of easiness business as have bave talon taken place since the lowest point in the ho depies depie eion sElon was reached in ill march of the present year there are arc indications that the maximum point both in activity and in pisces his has not yet been le ached some of tile the most important factors in tile non and steel trade have been slow in making their influence frit felt notably if in the case of railroads which hate haie figured less lees in n the past revival than upon siu similar ilar pervious occasions anti and there appears to be a considerable marin mar margin in between the present demand and the maximum late of cou consumption that is likely to be reached under conditions now existing the present revival of the iron and steel trade dates from the advance in wages of the coke workers in ill tile the employ of the 11 II C prick frick coke company iu in the Connell sille region of pennsyl ania which amounted to 15 per cent and became effective on april 1 1895 As the car egie interests ts i L ed by the H C prick frick coke company own ovens out of ovens inthe in the con connellsville wellsville nellsville nells ville region the advance in wages by this company was sufficient to establish a anew basis for all the operators in the re region ion and to 0 o secure the general adoption of the new scale of n v ages aces the immediate deflect or of tle the advance was to increase tile the circular price of blast furnace coke from 1 to per ton on but as coke had been sel lingas low as and eon een per ton the actual inci increase ease in the price was gie giester titer than indicated by the advance in the circular rates the laige lai be advance in coke compelled an all increase in the price of pig iron and all forms of manufactured iron and steel anti and aiom this starting point the upward prices and the increase in the volume of trade has been continuous taking into consideration the ha large advance in values and the great increase in the volume ul of business the revival of the iron trade is probably of greater eions than apy any move genf meet in the history of the american can iron iron and steel industry i during the boorn boom of 89 the life advance in prices far exceeded the movement of the past six bix months il but the production of if pig iron during the entire year 1880 was less less than the output in the unit halt half of this year vear I 1 the absence of speculative sp emulative ecula tive features and the presence of an enormous 0 ll 11 consumptive demand impact a IT large a r age measure of stability to the inte sent conditions in the iron and steel trade thet e was a still fill ainther ther increase in the number and capacity of the active furna furnaces fur nareg ees diring the month of august and it is not unlikely that the next statement will show that the production has nearly if not quite reached the highest point 1 clot touched in the fall ol of 1691 when the rate of nearly gross tons per annum was readied rea clied the increase in the rate of production of pig iron does not dot fully represent the increase in consumption for foe the output increased less rapidly than ihan the demand and to in meet let tle ile deficiency stocks blocks were largely drawn upon the figures 0 of f the american iron and steel S teel association covering only unsold iron in the hands of producers or their agents show that life hie stocks of pig if biem oil were reduced from gross tons at the beginning of the year to tons tona at tile the end of june statistics of a it ider range 1 i compiled hy by the iron age and ini 1 eluding luding both bolli sold and unsold iron except that held by the large steel companies show that stocks blocks I 1 amounting to groe grep tons ions on oil may MB 1 nhan bell the demand began to increase rapidly were reduced to tons on august 1 a loss of 39 tons in th oliree ree months the largest airiest li riest demand and the greatest retest rc test advances in arices have i i been shown by bessemer steel mai inai jenals and products pio ducts bessemer pig iron and Bess ciner billetts are now not controlling factors in the iron and bylel tride trade the iii arket tor lot bessemer steel products product now inow determines the output of pig pia iron aud the consumption of mill and foundry grades of pig iron is exerting less influence upon the operations erat ions of the bl blast furnaces as compared with the influence of steel the substitution of rolled steel for cast and wrought iron in C structural truc tural work and for many 0 ther other uses is bound to increase indrea e till further the importance of tho the bessemer steel industry i in n its t relation to tho production 0 of f pig iron in the second half of 1891 when the production of pig hon beached leached it its highest point out of a total production of crosb tons I 1 ns of pig iron iron 1 tons on were tere of f bessemer bei semer grade representing about abot 43 per cent of the entire output in that hat period during the first bix months of 3 ear car with willi a production of gross tons of vig pig iron the output or of bessemer grade it as tons or over 58 per cent of the total product it is worthy northy of note that the price ossteel of steel rails during the last six months has home boine no fixed relation to the price or of billets or the cost of bessemer pig iron from january 1 to june 20 steel rails were sold A at 22 per ton at mills mill in genii dennl ivania vania tile the price fixed by the com coin at the close of last year during this period the margin marain between bessemer pig iron and rails was reduced from 1220 to and the difference between tho the price of billets and rails was cut down from to 4 by the advance in billets on june 20 the price of rails was advanced from 22 to 24 but the further increase in the price PICO of billets has practically wiped out all the margin between billets and rails flom this it would won ld seem that an early advance ad ance in the price of steel rails is probable one of the inte 4 the re revival ival in thearon th the eLron iron fiade during the past six months ia the fact that while there has been such a marked alvance agvan aein in price ofru of crude and finished prod product no vi i there lias has been no cor corresponding report ang increase in ia the lost of the raw materials material W hile bessemer pig iron arnn has advanced about ia 6 per ton from the lowest point the increase in the cost of if ita it manufacture by reason of the slight advance in the price of ore the increase of per ton ill in the cost of coke and an increase of about 18 per cent in labor has drobil probably ay not exceeded or 2 per ton at t the outside while in many cases the increase in coat has been much less than this the advance in price to the present level is ia almost holla the result of the large demand rather than the effect of increased cost of production what promises most for a con or of the be activity is the wide diversity of the demand for sill ill fortus forms of iron and steel while the railroads and allied interests are probably tile the most i important consumers of iron and steel the revival in the trade began with little ur or no help bp from these factors the lail roada hive have since gien powerful powei ful stimulus to the iron trade and are likely to figure more largely among the buyers but it is nevertheless true and a gratifying fact that the support of the iron and steel industries now miles comes h horn oin many and varied sources obviously this contributes largely to the of the trade |