Arizona republican., 1900-11-27
A SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
In Which the British Are
 Being WOrsted
A Successful Invasion of the Country By American Manufacturers of Railroad Material and Equipment. A Note of Alarm.

Washington, Nov. 26.-The editor of the British and South African Gazette has been stirring up the British and South African public on the fact that American manufacturers are making rapid headway in the markets of Af- rica. In letter to the leading pub lication in London, and republished in the British and South African Export Gazette of November. 19OO just re- ceived by the treasury bureau of sta tistics, he says:
 For the information of your readers, I append herewith a lengthy list of some of the orders lately executed, or now being executed 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:
 Tn December, 1897, American mak- CTS had in hand orders for GO saloon carriages for the equipment of the eastern section of the Cape Govern ment railway, and in that month, six 50-tOn locomotives were delivered at the Cape Government works from the Baldwin works of Messrs. Burnham, Williams & Co.,, Philadelphia.
 Tn March, 196, six improved Pull man cars were landed at Cape Town for the Cape Government railroad.
 Tn July, 1900, several Baldwin To- comotives were delivered at Cape Town, in part completion of Cape Gov ernment contracts. In that month according to the general manager of the Cape Government railways, there were still S9 engines and about $780, 900 worth of trucks and other rolling stock on order in England and Amer ica Four engines built by Messrs. Dickson & O., Philadelphia. for the Se'ati railway, have been acquired by the Cape Government and are now running on the Wynberg branch.
 Tn September, 1900, the Union Switch and Signal Co, of Pittsburg. Y. s. A, had in hand a large order for special frogs and switches for the Cape Government railways, and several side tank engines from the Baldwin works were daily expected to be delivered at Cape Town for the railways.
 Tn September. 1900, the Pressed Steel Car Co., of Pittsburg. U. s. A. had in hand an order for the Cape Government railways for several steel platform cars of forty tons capacity.
 Apart from these items, it is sig nificant that for the year ending June 30,1900, the United States of America shipped 40,691 tons of steel rails to South Africa (value e16O,O0O) as against 3,1C5 tons (value e13,14D in the previous year. In the estimates of the Cape Government for the coming year, the sum of e645, ,S02 is put down for rolling stock, locomotives. etc. but nothing is. of course said as to where these large orders will be placed.
 ''1 do not, altogether, blame the Cape Colony for thus diverting a large share of it's orders to other countries, for it is notorious, as Sir Waiter Peace has re- marked, that, as time is now the es- sence of the contract. British engineer ing firms have been and are unable 10 accept them, the work already n hand being more than they can undertake. Price, too, is an important factor, and especially is this so with railway ma terial, locomotives and trucks, which cost considerably less in the United States than in the United Kingdom. It 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, a sus- picion exists in the minds of the man. ufacturers that it 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 it is disgraceful that other coun- tries should receive the advantages of the unparalleled sacrifices we have made in the Boer war; and while ad hitting that governments, like indi- viduals. must be guided by business prudence. it will certainly be lamen.a- ble if every effort be not straine ed to check the tendency to favor the for eign manufacturer at the expense Of his British competitors.
 There is one way whereby the ten der system leads to the diversion of or ders to America, even despite the good intentions of the co,onial govern ments. This is in case, where no are inserted in the con- tracts. that the material employed shall be ordered of British manufac- turers. Quite recently an order for rails for a Natal municipality found its way to the Lorain Steel Co, Johns town, in this way-wholly, it is permis- sible to believe, against she intentions of the municipal authorities, and pos sibly against the intentions of the con- tractors, who had probably based their estimate on the lower American est"