ever known in this country. The sudden rise in 1895 seems to have been due to the discovery of the fact that the amount of oil on hand and the production were declining very rapidly as compared with the demand, and to a consequent desire to get stocks ahead. It was thought that some of the refiners had sold ahead far beyond their capacity to supply from any stock which they had on hand, and that the advance in crude oil was largely arbitrary, and intended to overthrow them. At any rate, there was urgent demand on a short supply, and the market was largely speculative for a time. In 1897 another decline is due to the opening of the West Virginia fields, while the present rise is to be ascribed chiefly to another decided check in the output, which is clearly destined to grow worse unless new fields are discovered.

Tin Plate*

The most striking fact which appears in the chart is the very rapid increase in all prices during the year 1899-in steel as well as tin plate.

* On this chart the prices of steel billets have been taken from the "Iron Age," which is, perhaps, as trustworthy as any single authority can be.

The causes of the rapid increase in the price of steel, the chief raw material, are, perhaps, many, but, from the standpoint of the manufacturers and for our purposes here, it will be sufficient to say that the enormous increase in the demand for steel of all kinds is, perhaps, to be considered as first and most important. There has been during the past year a decided increase in the demand for steel rails, not merely for the building of new railroads, but also for the relaying of old track with heavier rails, because of the heavier rolling stock now used on the most important roads.

Structural steel for buildings is now used in enormous quantities, whereas for this purpose its use was almost unknown ten years ago. Steel bridges on railroads and elsewhere are rapidly displacing all the wooden bridges. The use of pressed steel for railroad cars is almost entirely Chairman Gates of the American Steel

new.

The prices of tin and of tin plate have been furnished by Phelps, Dodge & Co., of New York city, while Mr. Reid, president of the American Tin Plate Company, has himself given, as nearly as was possible, the cost of labor of manufacturing one standard box of tin plate.

These figures may be found in the Preliminary Report of the United States Industrial Commission, Vol. I., pp. 55, 868-9.

and Wire Company is of the opinion that these later uses of steel have increased the demand for that article within the last two or three years by more than the total output of steel for the whole United States fifteen or twenty years ago. It is in all probability due to this enormous demand for new purposes, without as yet a corresponding increase in the facilities for producing an adequate supply, that the great increase in its price has come about. The increased demand for steel, and consequent increased price, has been to a considerable extent reflected in the prices of iron ore and pig iron, in the charges for the transportation of ore, and in the higher wages of labor. This increase in the price of steel, which is the chief raw material in the manufacture of tin plate, of necessity has forced up the price of tin plate.

Tin has increased within the last two years from some $14 a hundred to double that price. Labor also, since July 1, 1899, when the new arrangements were made with the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers, has increased some 20 per cent. on the average. The line D represents the market value of 1051⁄2 lbs. of steel plus that of 21⁄2 lbs. of tin,

i.e.: the value of the raw material in a fullweight box of tin plate. The line B shows the same plus the cost of labor to manufacture one box. The line A represents the price of a fullweight box of the manufactured product. The diagram shows clearly the decided increase in all of these costs.

The distance from the base of the chart of the line C, representing the perpendicular distance between the lines B and A, shows then the cost of manufacture, aside from the labor, which is included in B, plus the profit in manufacturing. It will be noted that from the beginning of 1895 up to the middle of 1897, in spite of one decided drop in the latter part of 1895, this difference between the cost of material and labor and the selling price of the tin plate remained somewhat above $1, say $1.10 to $1.20 a box. During 1897 there was a decline in price with a more decided fall in the margin between the prices of the raw material and the finished product, shown by line C, which, with slight variations, continued downward until October, 1898. Before the organization of the American Tin Plate Company, in December, 1898, there had been, in October, a decided increase in the