I've read other articles from Northern newspapers in which they lament the impossibility of controlling the flow of goods across the borders between the Union and the Confederacy. Perhaps they thought that the railroad steel would end up in Union states, simply because of it's lower cost?
The US can't even control it's borders now. I imagine it was just as much of a problem back then. Perhaps even worse.
They're newspaper editorials expressing the political leanings of their publishers. No different than all the recent editorials concerning Trump and Russia and collusion and all the rest that have been in the New York Times and Washington Post and the like? Are they all stupid or something too?
But back to my original question. Who would be shipping this massive amount of railroad iron the the Southern states and what was it supposed to be used for? Where was the demand coming from?