Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-11-07
American Goods in England.

lhOoU Vi tlC oActASoo Nv" PASSSho 80
, England is due to the failure of the
grain crop and the competition of
American producers and dealers,
there are nevertheless, some fearful
, inroads now in progress upon the
manufacturing industries Of that
country. The leading factories in
all the large cities throughout the
British Islands, and the consequent
strikes and fearful mob demonstra-
tons among the laboring classes are
an abundant proof of the lcign OF
terror now ravaging that otherwise
fair land. British statesmen are
just beginning to see and openly
confess the great error of their na-
ton, the unequal division and owner
ship of their lands. This is at the
bottom of all their evils, although
the best informed co, servatiye Eng.
lishmen have brtu ~.uw to come to
such corc,ut,uA Their leading
manufacturers are becoming truly
alarmed at the progress which Amer
lean industrial products arc making
in their own markets. a writer in
the London Standard makes tho
solemn assertion that, in England as
well as on the Continental portion of
Europe, American calicoes and cot.
ton goods generally were rapidly SUI
perseding British goods of the same
style. According to his observa-
tons, there seems to be working an
ominous and fearful change in the
minds of all Europeans as to the
relative quality and value of English
and American fabrics of all descrip-
tons. But not only in the vast line
of cotton goods does there exist
gigantic competition, but in almost
every other industry for which Eng
lish craftsmen have been so famous,
there is steady, usurpins progress
being made by our own makers and
dealers.
The writer alluded to, says that at
home he finds his iron-mongers sell
ing American spades, saws, chisels,
b ummers and axes, while his neigh
bols' shelves are filed up with such
things as locks, bolts, stoves and
lamps. Both upper and sole leather
manufactured in the United States
are sent to England TO be made into
boots and shoes. Tie finest English
carriages are manufactured from ma
terials shipped from Boston and
New York across the Atlantic. Vast
quantities of slate stonesare qutrried
in this country to cover the roofs of
English houses. Millions of cigar
cites smoked by prosy Englishmon
are made in Richmond, Va, and
even our steel pens arc fairly enter
ing the lists with the celebrated arti-
Giles manufactured at Birmingham.
And in like manner we might speak
of hundred other things. 1t IS
daily growing more apparent to
English statesmen and economists
that the rotten, worm. eaten nobility
system will not answer in these days
OF popular sovereignty. If English
manufacturers are to successfully
cope with American genius and skill,
great and fundamental change
must be brought about in the social
condition of their working classes.
In other words, the laborer must
have chance to feel that he is
worthy Of his hire. In our own free
and untrammeled society, the poor
est mechanic is sovereign placed
beside the English tradesman and it
is this very consciousness of his
equality as citizen that inspires
him with generous emulation. So
among the agricultural classes. The
English tiller of the soil is little bet
ter than a serf, with no hope that,
in the cause of human events, he
will ever become the owner, in fee
simple, of one rood OF the earth's
productive surface. How is it in
happy and proud America? 1t is the
genius of our governmental scheme
that every man shall be an independ-
ent landowner. In the midst OF
the so-called hard times, it were a
healthful exercise for our poorer
classes to contrast their condition