Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-23
TAKING BRITISH TRAD
AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVES AND CARS
SENT TO CAPE COLONY.
Cost Less Than Those Made In Eng
land and Can BE Furnish
ed Sooner.

The editor of the British and South Afri-
can Export Gazette has been stirring UP the
British and South African public on the
fact that American manufacturers are
making rapid Roadway in the markets Of
Africa. In letter to the leading publica-
ton in London and republished in the Brit
ish and South African Export Gazette of
November, 1900. just received by the treas
ury bureau of statistics, he says:
For the informa ton of your readers 1
append herewith lengthy list of some
orders lately executed and now being eX-
ecuted in America for Cape Colony. My
data may not be exact as to quantities,
etc, but the fact remains that such orders
have been or are in process of being eX-
ecuted.
Cars From America.
I'm December, 1897 American makers
had in hand orders for sixty saloon car
riages for the equipment of the eastern
section of the Cape Government railway,
and in that month six fifty-ton locomotives
We're delivered at the Cape Government
railway works from the Baldwin works of
Messrs Burnham, Williams & Co, Phila-
delphla.
In March. 1896. six improved Pullman
cars were~landed at Cape Town for the
Cape Government railway.
In July, 1900 several Baldwin locomo-
tves were delivered al Cape Town in part
completion Of Cape Government contracts
In that month, according to the general
manager of the Cape Government railways
there were still thirty nine engines and
about f16O,0o worth of trucks and other
rolling stock on order in England and
America. Four engines built by Messrs
Dickson & Co, Philadelphia, for the Selati
railway, have been acquired by the Cape
Government and are now running on the
Wynberg branch.
In September, 1900, the Union Switch
and Signal Company of Pfttsburg L S A.
had in hand a large order for special frogs
and switches for the Cape Government rail-
ways, and several side-tank engines from
the Baldwin works were daily expected to
be delivered at Cape Town for the rail-
ways.
in September, 1900, the Pressed Steel
Car Company of Fittsburg. L. S. A. had
in hand an roder for the Cape Government
railways for several steel platform cars of
forty tons capacity.
Apart from these items it is significant
that for the year ending June 30, 1899, the
United States of America shipped 1851
tons Of steel rails to South Africa (vaIue
10000 pounds sterling), as against ), 105
tons (value, 1871 pounds sterlng) in the
previous year. In the estimates of the Cape
government for the current year the sum
of 645,sO2 sterling is put down for rolling
stock, locomotives, etc, but nothing is, OF
course, said as to where these large orders
will be placed.
American Cars Cheaper.
Il do not altogether blame the Cape Co..
ony for thus diverting a large share of its
orders to other countries, for it is noto-
rious, as Sir Walter Peace has remarked,
that as time is now the essence of the
contract British engineering firms have
been and are unable to accept them, the
work already in hand being more than they
can Overtake. Price, too is an important
foo ton, to n
way material, locomotives and trucks,
which cost considerably less in the United
States than in the united kingdom 1t Is,
however, impossible to overlook the fact
that many important orders have gone to
America from the Cape that could have
been placed in this country had efforts
been made to this end, and, rightly or
wrongly, suspicion exists in the minds of
manufacturers that is entirely due to the
anti-British tendencies of some of the
Cape's officials. Whatever the reason, the
empire at large will agree that 1t is dis
graceful that other countries should reap
the advantage of the unparalleled sacrifices
we have made IN the Boer war, and while
admitting that governments. like individ-
uals, must be guided by business prudence.
1t will certainly be lamentable if every eff
fort be not strained to check the tendency
to favor the foreign manufacturer at the
expense Of his British competitors
There is one way whereby the tender
system leads to the diversion of orders to
America, even despite the good intentions
of the colonial governments. This is IN
case where no stipulations are inserted In
the contracts that the material employed
shall be ordered of British manufacturers.
Quite recently an order for rails for a
Natal municipality found its way to the
Lorain Steel Company, JohnstoWn, Ia, IN
this way-wholly. it is permissible to be-
lieve, against the intentions of the munich
pal authorities and possibly against the
Intentions of the contractors, who had prob
ably based their estimate on the lower
American cost