The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-04-26
what Alarms industrial England

What Alarms Industrial England.
The manufacturers OF Great Britain
are thoroughly aroused over the com
petition OF American workmen, by
which the English foreign trade lies ut
the mercy of the manufacturers of this
country. The situation has been fully
exploited in u series OF articles appear
ing in the London Times, which sent an
expert investigator to she United States.
His reports may well alarm England
more than any political dangers which
threaten her. They Induce the Times
itself to comment on the situation in the
following remarkable language:
These articles may at least open the
eyes OF some people to the fact that
there is a great deal which 1t behooves
them to understand, and may stimulate
them to look for themselves into the
very grave problems that lie before
English manufacturers, even in those
departments where their supremacy
was once most undlsputed 1t is not in
war alone that the people OF this coun-
try cling to the comfortable belief that
we shall 'muddle through somehow. "
After reading the compliment Britons
a lecture on this shilly-shally policy in
business, the Times goes on to say:
But even II muddllng through were
the noblest form OF human effort and
the only one worthy OF a gentleman
the fact remains that 1t is becoming
every day more unsuited to the actual
condition Of the world. We are not Win
ming any great triumph by mudd!lng
through; and with every decade that
passes our trlumphs Will become more
difficult to discover unless we conde-
scend to bring a scientific method to
bear on our conduct OF public and prl-
waite affairs. The United States mas I'M
mcnse advantages In the aboundance
OF raw material. the ease with which
II is mined and the cheapness OF transit
by waterways. These are reasons why
we should omit nothing that may place
us in the possession of other adYant-
ages depending on brains and enter
prise. Yet we are far behind In scian-
tific organization, in economy OF chort.
In the use OF machinery and IN training
worlcmen.
II might be expected that the trades
union system would be far more uou-
blesome In the United States than mere,
but the contrary is the case. IT would
probably be found. on inquiry, that the
phenomenon Is not uncOnuectcd win
The difference In industrial organization.
The Americans are never content while
anything IL done by manual labor which
can possibly be done by machinery.
Their demand is accordingly for work
men with brains. and the development
of brains means the development OF IN
divlduallty which declines to sink Itself
In the monotOny OF medlocriiy eEcour-
aged by the English trade unior.
The difference between English ana
American workmen Is the difference be-
tween the mechanical discipline OF our
soldiers and the reliance on indiViuuel
training and Intelligence which is row
recognized as necessary in ether armies.
The English workmcn who so TO Amer
lea frequently find thcms Ives very IN
comfortable. They are required 10 show
n mental alcrtness TO which they are
quite unused. and they find 1t necessary
TO do their best instead of conforming
to the restrictiya rules OF the trade union
which require them to do no better thah
the average OF competency
In fact. our workmen are too much
like their masters in thinking what has
been done In the past VIII DO IN the Iu-
ture, and that the chief meaning OF
progress is to enable them TO get along
with even less effort than before.
These are admissions which English
men would scorn TO havy made even a
few months ago; but the facts more
than justify them, and they are facts
Of which our manufacturers will I'M
doubtedly take the fullest advantage