00 tons of pig iron we made per annum in 1888 was trebled; we
made nearly 2,000,000. Our product of iron and steel was in 1888, say,
2000 tons per day; it grew to exceed 6000 tons. Our coke works then
embraced about 5000 ovens; they were trebled in number, and our
capacity, then 6000 tons, became 18,000 tons per day. Our Frick Coke
Company in 1897 had 42,000 acres of coal land, more than two thirds of
the true Connellsville vein. Ten years hence increased production may
be found to have been equally rapid. It may be accepted as an axiom
that a manufacturing concern in a growing country like ours begins to
decay when it stops extending.

To make a ton of steel one and a half tons of iron stone has to be
mined, transported by rail a hundred miles to the Lakes, carried by
boat hundreds of miles, transferred to cars, transported by rail one
hundred and fifty miles to Pittsburgh; one and a half tons of coal
must be mined and manufactured into coke and carried fifty-odd miles
by rail; and one ton of limestone mined and carried one hundred and
fifty miles to Pittsburgh. How then could steel be manufactured and
sold without loss at three pounds for two cents? This, I confess,
seemed to me incredible, and little less than miraculous, but it was
so.

America is soon to change from being the dearest steel manufacturing
country to the cheapest. Already the shipyards of Belfast are our
customers. This is but the beginning. Under present conditions America
can produce steel as cheaply as any other land, notwithstanding its
higher-priced labor. There is no labor so cheap as the dearest in the
mechanical field, provided it is free, contented, zealous, and reaping
reward as it renders service. And here America leads.

One great advantage which America will have in competing in the
markets of the world is that her manufacturers will have the best home
market. Upon this they can depend for a return upon capital, and the
surplus product can be exported with advantage, even when the prices
received for it do not more than cover actual cost, provided the
exports be charged with their proportion of all expenses. The nation
that has the best home market, especially if products are
standardized, as ours are, can soon outsell the foreign producer. The
phrase I used in Britain in this connection was: "The Law of the
Surplus." It afterward came into general use in commercial
discussions.

CHAPTER XVII

THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE

While