New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-12-15
THE RIGHT KIND OF PROGRESS.

British industries must indeed be In dlscon-
tented frame of mind when such journal as
.Iondon Engineering" says, In an article re-
Gently quoted that the labor system in Great
Britain produces IAN average result equal 10
that OF the least efficient member" III II is
really as bad as that the ease is hopeless. IN
this country the average is still something
HIGHER than the lowest of things averaged. But
in this country. as well as In Great Britain,
wherever the effort of labor organizations Is
directed to produce as little as possible with a
given number of hands employed the result is
nowhere helpful to labor or TO capital. The
other side of the shield appears in the voluntary
increase Of 10 per cent in wages by the Ameri-
can Woolen Company, employing about twenty
six thousand hands, which is justified on the
ground that it will stimulate the hands to more
efficient labor.
In both countries industries differ remarka-
blv in their rate of progress toward higher eff
cheney In some lines 1t is admitted that little
relative progress has been made for years, and
Free Trade theorists attribute it TO Protection,
while denying that Protection has anything to
do with the marveously great progress at
tanned in other Industries equally defended
Even now, with current high prices for iron and
ucts in comparison with those of forty years
ago is 1876 per cent lower than the price of pig
iron. How much the pig Iron itself has been re-
duced in comparison with the cost OF ore cannot
he calculated. The latest advance in the prices
of woolen goods puts them only 7.3 per cent
below the equivalent Of their cost in raw wool
forty years ago In the cotton manufacture
owing TO recent advances, the average OF prices
tl.nV thn
price of raw cotton in comparison with prices Of
1860 These are all high tide prices, and reflect
less correctly than at other times the differences
In cost of manufacture. Yet they serve to nd-
cate that in the various industries widely differ
ent degrees Of progress have been attained in
cheapening products to consumers.
British Industries have made gains also. In
1860 ordinary iron rails were worth in England
2.44 times the cost of pig iron, then 65s. In 1878
the rails were worth only 1.9l times the cost OF
pig, then sos. and steel rails were worth Pa
times that cost last January the steel rails were
worth only 1S1 times the cost of pig, then be
low 50s., but now they bring 1.S7 times the cost
Of pig which Is Cos. I'D, about per cent higher
than in 1860 In this country the iron rails In
1860 were worth 2.l2 times the cost of pig then
S23 for anthracite No. l; In 1873 the iron rails
were worth only twice the cost OF pig, and steel
rails were worth 2.41 times that COST last Janu-
airy. with pig at s12 the steel rails were worth
1.42 times and now with pig nj 500, the rails
are worth 40 times that cost. The pig Is Just
now dearer than It was forty years ago, while
steel rails now cost $780, against S4S IS for iron
rails then. In 1860 StafrordshIre bars were
worth 2B1 times the cost OF pig In England, and
800 times in 1878. but only go times last Jan
uary, though they are now worth 2.5s times the
cost of pig Here the best refined bars We're
worth 26l times the cost Of pig in 1860, only
go times in 1878, only 200 times in January
last and are only LOG times the cost VI pig now
The material is at present slightly dearer In
| comparison with 1880 than In Great Britain.