The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-21
CONSUL HALSTEAD.
Americas Representative
at Birmingham, Eng
land, In the City.

Marshal Halstead, United States
consul in Birmingham, England, and
son Of Murat Halstead, the veteran edi-
tor, spent a part of yesterday in Wor-
cester visiting friends. The town of
old Worcester. England, is by the way
one of the cities included in Mr.. Hal
stead's district.
He arrived in New York Saturday,
after 10 months service. for short va
cation and to get another American
view point, it is necessary to keep in
close touch with American affairs to
do good work abroad.
Speaking of the duties of a modern
consul, Mr.. Halstead said: "The up-to-
date American consul no longer con-
siders himself diplomat. He is now
his countrys business representative
first and foremost and all the
time. The London Daily Mail calls him
a high-class commercial salesman,
and the same term is used by the Eng
fish papers in describing Joseph Cham
berlain and Lord Charles Beresford, so
consuls have every reason to be pleased
with the designation.
chamberlain, you know, is native
of Birmingham, and is almost wor-
SHIPPED by his fellow townsmen. He Is
one of the few living men whose statue
adorns a square in his native city. He
was an active and energetic business
man before he went into politics. He
used to manufacture screws and bolts.
But when he went into politics he sold
out. In England few men pursue a
| business and a political career simulta-
neously.
1T was in Birmingham that Mr..
| Chamberlain made his famous speech
advocating an Anglo-American alliance
| during the war. That speech voiced the
sentiment of the whole city. With few
exceptions, the English sympathized
| with our course during the war and
hoped it would lead to a closer union
| between the two nations. The English
join and enthusiastically in our re-
! joicings when the news came in from
| Manila and Santiago
birmingham is a manufacturing
town and the members of the Amer
| lean colony there are nearly all there
| on business. Six or seven American
| statesmen may be found any evening
Of the year by making the rounds of
the hotels But the American trade
is by no means so brisk as it was be-
| fore the recent increased demand for
many products sprung up in America.
Statesmen in many lines are being
called home. For example, I knew
one man who had developed a good
business in the sale of vehicle compo-
nents. of bolts in Birmingham. of car
riage springs in Sheffield, and glazed
cotton in Manchester. When the in
creased demand arose in America, his
firms neglected their English or
ders, giving the home market
the preference. The result is
that he has been obliged t.
| cease business there altogether for a
time But when the American demand
falls off he will have a hard time re-
| gaining his English trade. When the
English enter into business relations
they fully expect the other parties to
continue their part of the contract. 1t
| is with them a matter of duty, and
they feel that the man who has once
agreed to supply them with a certain
article should continue to do so as long
as he continues in business. There is
| Justice in the claim, because in many
instances preliminary experiments with
the American articles have cost them
money and time
zone thing l want to emphasize. The
| firm that is quick to enter this field
now while all the rest are neglecting
| their opportunities, will score an i'm
mense advantage. People abroad are
now greatly interested in watching the
attitude of the trusts in America to-
ward foreign trade. They are really
| hoping that the great combines are
going to overlook the opportunities to
which private enterprise has been
blind, and the American trusts, If they
go in for foreign trade, will be the
hardest competitors the foreign bust
ness would have ever had to mset.
Nothing they do withstands the
Standard Oil trusts methods of ex-
tending their foreign trade, the wire
and wire nail trust can take any mar
ket they try for, and most of the other
trusts can capture good foreign mar
kets.
1.-THE English have their trusts as
well as the Americans, and in my dis
trict there is a new kind of a trust
which includes the labor organization
of the trade trusted as perhaps the
most important factor in the trust.
1--WE have in Birmingham a man who
makes a business of forming these
trusts and who demands regular sal
airy for organizing them, only he does
not call them trusts. He terms them
combinations He is now getting the
tin plate people into line.
"Of course, the English believe thor
oughly in the expansion policy because
it has paid them so well. To them it Is
the most natural thing possible to
reach out for new markets, and they
are surprised that their American cou-
sins should have been so long content
to confine their efforts to internal de-
velopment.
Mr.. Halstead will go to Washington
in a few days and thence to Cincin-
natl, returning to England May 9th
on the steamer st. Paul.
WINS DECIDING DEBATE.