s of the
United States have pursued this course in their limited field. The boot
and shoe manufacturers, if they have not bought largely of raw material,
have, at least, taken such steps as will guarantee them against a sudden
advance. The clothing manufacturers have wisely purchased for their
future wants; in fact, in almost every avenue of activity this policy
has been pursued. The users of Lake ore have already bought five and
one-half millions of the seven or eight million tons of ore they will
want this year. The users of steel blooms and billets have bought so far
ahead that manufacturers are now declining to make further contracts,
excepting for very strong reasons. The Southern pig-iron makers are
debating with themselves whether they will accept orders for pig-iron to
be delivered next summer or wait a few months. Scores of illustrations
of this sort could be enumerated. In many quarters this policy is
believed to be an unwise one. Experience has shown it to be a safe one.

The iron industry, as a whole, is on a very permanent foundation.
Manufacturers are hurrying to complete new works; lumber manufacturers,
especially throughout the South, are stimulated to the greatest exertion
by two new causes: First, a strong demand throughout the North for the
superior lumber-mill products of the South; and second, a wonderful
expansion of local demand in the South arising from the new industries
there. The makers of nearly all kinds of machinery are busy with new
work, fully one-half of which is for delivery in the new Southern or
Western States. The manufacturers of steam-pumps, the manufacturers of
appliances for new fuel-gas processes, the builders of heavy machinery
for steam and electrical purposes, the manufacturers of
hoisting-machinery and of machinery for mining purposes, as well as of
machinery for general shop-use, have been booking more business since
the 1st of October than their present shop-capacity will allow them to
execute. Consequently, a general system of enlargement is in progress.
Contracts have been lately given out for the construction of machinery
to make machines of larger than usual dimensions. Our industries are
being reorganized, and instead of engines of five, ten or fifty
horse-power, engines of fifty to five hundred horse-power are now
common. Agricultural operations are conducted by the aid of machinery
upon a larger scale, and within the past six months a score or more of
establishments