The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1900-01-26
A GROWING INDUSTRY
Shi pbui|ding on the Pacific Coast
Steadily Increasing.
COMPETE WITH THE WORLD
Manager Dickie, of the Union Iron Works.
San Francisco, Expresses His Views
on This Important Subject.
An Industry Only in
Its Infancy.
COMPETE WITH THE WORLD

which Manager Dickie, of the Union
Iron Works, in San Francisco, has con-
tributed to the pages of ''Engineering, "
is interesting from several points of
view. That this well known British
technical weekly should now be print
ing series of articles, of which Mr..
Dickie's is the fourteenth, on this one
topic is itself significant fact. How
far the Atbara Bridge incident and the
shipment of an unusual number of
American locomotives to England last
year may have led to such result it is
difficult to surmise, but that country
has certainly come.to realize of late as
never before the extent Of the rivalry
| existing between her manufacturers
and those on this side of the Atlantic.
An eager desire to learn the secrets of
American prosperity is thus excited
And the thoroughness of "Engineer-
lng's" efforts to ascertain them IS indi-
Gated by its seeking information so far
away as San Francisco.
The Union Iron Works occupy q
unique position geographically and COM
mercially. Although the chief source
OF iron ore in this country is the vicinity
OF Lake Superior, most of the stuff
must be brought down to within 300 or
400 miles Of the Atlantic Coast to be
smelted and made into steel At pres
ent California is dependent on the East
for her supplies of material, and the
cost OF transportation aGds seriously to
the expense. That the Pacific Coast
should be able to construct first class
steel ships in spite of this disadvantage
is occasion for National pride and con-
graduation. Mr.. Dickie frankly says
that the problems of competition with
the eastern part of his own country are
more Important than those Of compe-
tition with England.
Again, labor is more costly on the
Pacific Coast than on the Atlantic sea-
board and in England The manager
of the Union Iron Works is not so
strongly convinced of the superiority of
the American workman as are other ex-
perts Owing in some measure to
causes which possibly he may have over
looked, like the wonderful evolution of
the bicycle industry and it's absorption
of first class machinists, he finds skilled
workmen very scarce. To be sure, he
says, the American idea is to dispense
with labor as far as possible and use
machines. But in his opinion this
practice cannot be indulged in SO CON
veniently in shipbuilding as in other
manufactures, unless some combina-
tion of building and owning were made
possible that would admit of a number
OF types of vessels being designed to
meet the varied needs of commerce, and
then manufacturing them as required.
This might help in the production of
ships at less cost than now; but x
the country that gets it's labor cheapest,
unless there is some other factor in pro-
duction that balances the effect of
wages"
Mr.. Dickie has already suggested one
possible offset to the extra cost of labor.
But another, peculiar to the Pacific
Coast, is conceivable. During the last
five years a wonderful industrial de-
velopment has taken place there
Numerous streams in the Sierras have
been harnessed to dynamos, and the
electric currents thus generated have
been transmitted for distances of seventy
and eighty miles. Before many months
have elapsed this record Will be sur
passed. 1t is not incredible therefore,
that within the next decade power for
manufacturing purposes will actually
be cheaper ON the Pacific Coast than on
the Atlantic. And if coal and iron
should be found west of the Rockies
a not altogether unreasonable sugges-
tion-the present disparity between the
two regions in respect TO the cost of
steel might be appreciably reduced. Is
it too sanguine hope that practically,
all of the immense shipping that is to
ply between the Western ports of this
continent and Asia in coming years will
be built ON the Pacific Coast of America?
Yellow jackets made nests in the fire
alarm boxes in Seattle and damaged the
signal system by clogging the wires
with clay, which afterward hardened.