Abram S. Hewitt

“ No body of men can understand better than you that capital is essential to the development of natural resources on the scale demanded by modern civilization; but capital does not always comprehend as fully that science and experience are essential for the profitable use of money in the vast industrial undertakings of our day, and hence result great waste of resources and disastrous failures. ”

“ In 1856 I had occasion to trace the history of the manufacture of iron, and established what may be termed its law of development, rather rude indeed, but plainly dependent upon the growth of population and the spread of civilization throughout the world. At that time the annual production of iron had reached about 7,000,000 tons, of which Great Britain produced 3,500,000 tons, and the United States about 1,000,000 tons. The consumption of Great Britain was 144 pounds, and of the United States 84 pounds, while the average consumption of the world was only 17 pounds, per head, of population. ”

“ As New York will be the centre of capital, so will it be the initial point of our iron and steel industry. On the shores of the Hudson River, the ores of Lake Champlain, of the valleys of Connecticut, and of the highland ranges of New York and New Jersey, will meet the anthracite coals of Pennsylvania upon conditions so favorable that New York and its vicinity must become a great metallurgical centre. ”

“ You, gentlemen, have limited yourselves to the study of physical laws and their application to industry, but I hope to see the day when all over this land, and throughout the world, there will be similar associations devoting themselves with equal zeal and intelligence to the discovery of the laws upon which society should be organized, and to the application of these laws to the proper distribution of the fruits of industry among those who labor for their production ”

“ For New York, although far from being the cherished home of science and art, comprehends that its growth and its future greatness depend upon the development of the natural resources of the country of which it is the commercial metropolis ”

“ The consumption of iron measures the progress of civilization, and it is impossible not to believe that the whole world will ultimately require as much iron per head as we now use in the United States, when a total annual production of over 70,000,000 tons will be required. ”

“ This is due to the fact that the possession of virgin resources in coal and iron made it easy to increase production beyond the present wants of society. The resulting competition has had the effect to reduce prices to so low a point that proper wages could not be paid, and mankind has been enabled to get cheap goods at the expense of humanity itself. ”

“ Hence, turning to the West, Missouri, Kentucky, Western Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, will be all aglow with furnaces, forges, and mills, fed by the admirable fuel of the inexhaustible coal-fields of the West, and the superb ores of Missouri and Lake Superior. ”

“ These virgin resources are mainly exhausted, and it is no longer possible in Europe, at least, to produce more iron than the world requires; prices have risen; the workmen are demanding and receiving a more reasonable reward for their labor, and it now only remains for them to fit themselves and their families for a rational use and enjoyment of the fruits of their toil. ”

“ Thence the chain of fire, extending across New Jersey and following the banks of the Lehigh and Schuylkill to the Susquehanna, will lead us by the margin of the coal-fields, along the outcrop of the magnetic, hematite, and fossiliferous ores which extend through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, nearly to the Gulf, so that the light of furnace answering to furnace will never be lost sight of in the long line of over 1,000 miles! ”

“ For one, I am free to say, after the most careful investigation, and very extensive observation, that iron has heretofore been made at too low a cost in foreign countries to allow the workmen engaged in its production a fair share of the necessaries and comforts of life. ”