| From the New Orleans Times Picayune |
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| April 12, 1862 |
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| The Iron Interest |
| What is Needed |
| Hon. Mark A. Cooper,
proprietor of the Etowah Iron Works in Cherokee, Georgia -- probably
the largest works of the kind in the Confederacy -- publishes in the
Atlanta Confederacy a letter which makes known some facts that ought
to be widely disseminated. In compliance with Mr. Cooper's request to
the press, and in the hope of arresting the attention of the
Government, we reproduce the main portion of his letter: |
| We have one main want only,
for months past, and that is, the want of stone coal, to finish iron.
This alone has limited our products and the country's supply thereof,
for six months past, to one-third what it should have been. |
| This want of coal has been
caused since Christmas, mainly by the lack of good business habits and
proper reflection on the part of those who have assumed the control of
the transportation department of the Nashville & Chattanooga
railroad. The consequence has been the postponement of work on
gunboats in all the Southern ports, and of gun carriages in process
of completion in Carolina and Georgia. |
| Another consequence of this
lack of stone coal is now felt as a serious inconvenience, and is
stopping the iron business here, to-wit: Our operatives who have
patiently waited for work, not being able to get it, whilst the mill
stood still for want of coal, from the necessity of the case, as a
means of getting a living, have volunteered and joined the army.
Hence, now that coal is coming in supply, by requisition of the Navy
and War Departments, we are actually standing half our time for the
lack of operatives, and the Government supplies are failures. |
| I have two objects: First,
truth; second, to call public attention, and the attention of the
Government officials, to the facts here stated. I have made them known
to the departments, and have asked that the operatives be sent here.
This has not yet been done. Until it is done, whatever is expected of
this place, will be tardily realized. |
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