When such results as this have been secured by a few inventors, what may we not venture to expect from the concentration of many ingenious minds on the important problem of economising coal?
Substitution of peat for coal.
As it is, I fear, certain that coal will never fall below fifteen or sixteen shillings a ton at the pit’s mouth, we ought not to neglect any possible source of supply. It has been suggested that the time has come when the peat bogs of these islands should be turned into coal and charcoal; and I am informed that the cost of the process does not exceed five shillings a ton. If these anticipations are verified, the drain on our coal-pits will be materially lessened.
General prospects of the iron trade.
It remains to consider how far the apprehensions, entertained in many quarters for the future of the British iron manufacture, are justified by actual experience. When we look back upon the past, the growth of British commerce cannot fail to reassure those, who are most inclined to look doubtfully on the future of our industry. Some statistics of the increase in the exports of iron and steel were given in a recent number of ‘Iron,’ from which I quote the following figures. Our exports of iron in 1840 amounted to 268,000 tons, of the value of £2,526,000. The quantity in 1850 was 783,000 tons; in 1860, 1,442,000 tons; and in 1870, 2,716,000 tons. The value in the latter year amounted to £21,080,000. In 1872 the quantity was 3,383,000 tons, the value of £36,000,000. We are sometimes assured that Belgium threatens our ironmasters with serious competition; but in Belgium the ore must be carried 100 miles or more to be smelted. The coal-pits are worked in many cases with considerable difficulty, and a Belgian workman does little more than half what an Englishman can accomplish in the same space of time. Sometimes we are told we shall lose our position in the Russian market. The Russian Government are doing their utmost to encourage the manufacture of iron at home; though there is little demand for pig iron in that country. Few Russians have had any experience in puddling. Skilled mill and forge men are scarce. Few of those obtainable have had any experience in the use of mineral fuel, and great difficulty is experienced in consequence of the objection of the Russians to piece-work. Lastly we are threatened with competition from the United States. The production of pig iron in the States may now be estimated at 2,500,000 tons, an increase of 1,000,000 tons on the production five years ago, and yet the ironmasters of the United States, who are protected by a duty of nearly £3 a ton on railroad iron, have hitherto been unable to supply the entire demand at home. There cannot be a doubt as to the ultimate consequences of the comparative exhaustion of our supplies of raw material at home; but we may hope that the tariffs, which now throw obstacles in the way of legitimate trade, will in time be removed, and that, as Mr. Mattieu Williams has suggested, we may be enabled to avail ourselves of the natural resources of America for obtaining our supplies of raw material, just as we already derive large supplies of hematite iron ore from Bilbao.
American competition.
At the present time, the United States, not content with their natural advantages, impose an almost prohibitory tariff on our exportations. There is a party in America opposed to protection, but hitherto the superior organisation and greater determination of the manufacturers interested in the maintenance of the tariffs has overpowered all opposition. At the last annual meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers at Philadelphia, the Honourable D. Kelley, who delivered the opening address, asserted that, by its dereliction of duty in not protecting the labourer of Great Britain against competition, the Government of this country have fostered anarchy in Ireland, while the life of the labourer in England and Scotland has been robbed of all its joys. ‘The millions of sturdy men,’ he declared, ‘represented by Bradlaugh, Odger, Joseph Arch, and the travelled and humane patrician, Sir Charles Dilke, know that the world owes every man a living, and that it is only by protection that the means of living can be secured to the people.’ So long as such a feeling prevails, there is little hope of our ironmasters obtaining free access to America.
The progress of the American iron works is the more creditable, because great difficulties are experienced in obtaining a sufficient supply of labour. Men come over from England, having had their expenses paid, on condition of taking an engagement for a period of five years. As soon as their bargain is performed, they generally find it impossible to resist the attractions of an independent farm in the Far West. Their places must be supplied by other workmen, obtained by the same costly means from the mother country. The difficulty of obtaining skilled workmen has had a great effect in America in stimulating the invention of labour-saving machinery; and as scientific manufacturers, the American ironmasters can doubtless hold their own against the world. In finished iron the Americans have been highly successful. Bridge-work, locomotives, wheels and tires, and machinery, are produced at prices, which may compare not unfavourably with our own. As an illustration of American ingenuity and enterprise, which came under my immediate notice, on the occasion of a recent visit to the States, I may point to the Peabody Rifle Company’s establishment at Providence, Rhode Island. During the Rebellion the Company was fully employed in the manufacture of small arms. The cessation of the struggle put an end to the demand for rifles; but, with the fertility of resource which distinguishes American industry, the manual skill of a large body of workmen especially apt in the production of tools or machinery, composed of numerous small and interchangeable parts, and the valuable and ingenious plant belonging to the Company, are now employed in the production of sewing machines. Three hundred machines are turned out every day, and the sale is constantly increasing. The wages of the 500 operatives employed are most liberal. The monthly pay-sheet amounts to 25,000 dollars, giving an average of 40s. a week throughout the factory. The leading workmen, five or six in number, to whom the work is let by the piece, or rather by sub-contract, earn nearly £600 a year. The superior mechanics earn 12s. to 14s.; labourers 4s. to 6s. a day. The supply of highly-skilled labour is limited, but ordinary mechanics can always be obtained. On an average, one skilled mechanic a day makes application for employment.
The success of the Peabody Company affords significant evidence that the cost of production is not augmented in equal proportion to the high rates of pay. At the time of my visit, they were negotiating a contract for the supply of 100,000 rifles to the Roumanian Government, at the rate of 63s. per rifle; and they had to compete for the contract against all the makers of Birmingham and Liège. This Company had also in prospect an order for 200,000 rifles, from the Turkish Government. The success, with which the Americans have reduced the cost of production by the invention of machinery, gives us ground for caution, lest our old supremacy be shaken by the energy and talent of the New World; while it also gives us reason to hope that the effects of the exceptionally high rates of wages now prevailing may be mitigated by substituting, wherever it is possible, mechanical for manual labour.