Sir, the true explanation of this appears to me to lie in the different prices of labor; and here I apprehend is the grand mistake in the argument of the chairman of the committee.  He says it would cost the nation, as a nation, nothing, to make our ore into iron.  Now, I think it would cost us precisely that which we can worst afford; that is, great labor.  Although bar-iron is very properly considered a raw material in respect to its various future uses, yet, as bar-iron, the principal ingredient in its cost is labor.  Of manual labor, no nation has more than a certain quantity, nor can it be increased at will.  As to some operations, indeed, its place may be supplied by machinery; but there are other services which machinery cannot perform for it, and which it must perform for itself.  A most important question for every nation, as well as for every individual, to propose to itself, is, how it can best apply that quantity of labor which it is able to perform.  Labor is the great producer of wealth; it moves all other causes.  If it call machinery to its aid, it is still employed, not only in using the machinery, but in making it.  Now, with respect to the quantity of labor, as we all know, different nations are differently circumstanced.  Some need, more than any thing, work for hands, others require hands for work; and if we ourselves are not absolutely in the latter class, we are still most fortunately very near it.  I cannot find that we have those idle hands, of which the chairman of the committee speaks.  The price of labor is a conclusive and unanswerable refutation of that idea; it is known to be higher with us than in any other civilized state, and this is the greatest of all proofs of general happiness.  Labor in this country is independent and proud.  It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor.  This is the general truth in regard to the condition of our whole population, although in the large cities there are doubtless many exceptions.  The mere capacity to labor in common agricultural employments, gives to our young men the assurance of independence.  We have been asked, Sir, by the chairman of the committee, in a tone of some pathos, whether we will allow to the serfs of Russia and Sweden the benefit of making iron for us.  Let me inform the gentleman, Sir, that those same serfs do not earn more than seven cents a day, and that they work in these mines for that compensation because they are serfs.  And let me ask the gentleman further, whether we have any labor in this country that cannot be better employed than in a business which does not yield the laborer more than seven cents a day?  This, it appears to me, is the true question for our consideration.  There is no reason for saying that we will work iron because we have mountains that contain the ore.  We might for the same reason dig among our rocks for the scattered grains of gold and silver which might be found there.  The true inquiry is, Can we produce the article in a useful state at the same cost, or nearly at the same cost, or at any reasonable approximation towards the same cost, at which we can import it?