The morning call., 1893-07-21
AMERICA AHEAD.

Recently in London n conference was
held of the iron and steel trades OF Great
Britain for the purpose of considering the
depressed condition of business. 1t ap-
pears to have been gloomy gathering.
and from what passed very little solid sat
isfaction or comfort could be extracted. A
conference without platform or resolu-
tlons seems anomalous. All that the mem
bers did was to listen to papers and dis
cuss the questions they raised. The most
startling communication was by Mr.. j.
Stephen Jeans, the secretary OF the Iron
and Steel Institute, who had just returned
from Chicago. and was we'll primed with
information on the metallurglcal trade of
the United States. From his intimate
acquaintance with this special field of
production and manufacturing, the reve-
latons he made must have been little
short of an awakening to the British iron
trade, which has now fallen behind Amer
lea in almost every feature except ship
building
Mr.. Jeans frankly declared that the
Uuited States has beaten Britain in the
manufacture Of steel, the products OF
roling-mills. the forges which handle
malleable iron, the production OF pigiron,
and the output of iron ore. He further
declared that only in shipbnlldlng has
Great Britain a statistical supremacy, and
this he attributed to the very large home
demand for tonnage. This. it may be ad-
mittad, is not an advantage which will last
forever. inasmuch as the English will
come to America for ships if they can get
them cheaper than at home, there being
no hindrancss to the acquisition of foreign
built ships. The United States has passed
the stage of manufacturing for domestic
requirements alone. Our manufacturers
are pushing the British hard in foundry
products. nails, tubes and other articles in
Canada and South and Central Amer
ica. Mr.. Jeans is inclined 10 attrib-
ute the decline IN Englapd's manufacture
ing position to better method abroad and
the introduction of cooperation amoug
manufacturers TO assist one another. Thus
the Swedish Iron Trade Association helps
members to extend their works. looks
after foreign interests and SubscrlbeS
money for experiments and the testing of
new processes. There are similar aSsocia-
tions in the United States, Germany and
France. England has Its Iron and Steel
Institute and its Iron Trade Association.
but this practical cohesive binding of
capitalists together for common purposes
does not exist Each employer fights for
his own hand. and is chary of communicat-
ing ideas which would benefit others If he
himself can keep exclusive possession.
But there is still another feature which
Mr.. Jeans approves OF. Large firms out
side England undertake many other things
besides the bare manufacture of iron and
steel. They are engineers and contractors
as we'll, and even undertake the financing of
huge operations. There is a Rothschild
breadth about their enterprise which
saves those who employ them a good deal
of worry about details. Hence English
firms which follow the old ruts and do not
show any faculty of adaptation to new
| circums tances frequently lose orders. The
acknowledgment OF the position which
the United States has attained is peculi-
arly gratifying. coming from such an
authoritative source. Even in shipbuild-
lug we have shown our capacity to lead.