Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1900-06-22
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
AMERICAN COMPETITION.

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The London Times has been publishing
a noteworthy series of articles upon
American competition with England in
the engineering trades. They are written
by an expert commissioner, who seems
to have been sent to this country to
make a searching personal investigation
of Industrial conditions, and who, as the
result of his Investigations, is led to
warn his countrymen of the menace
offered them by American competition.
He describes in detail the industrial
processes which he witnessed, and pre-
sents a startling exhibit of statistics
showing how the United States is crowd
ing England from her old place of in
dustrial supremacy.
Looking back over the ten years
1SSS 9S, the writer finds that at the be-
ginning of that period both the United
States and England were buying abroad
more goods than they were selling to
foreign customers. But at the end of
the period the excess of British imports
over exports was larger than at the be-
ginning, while the United States was
selling abroad twice as much as it was
buying. Or, to make the comparison
clearer by the use of a common term, in
1855 the excess of American imports
over exports was t~wentv-eight million
dollars, while the excess of British i'm
ports over exports was about foul hun
dred and forty-five million dollars. In
1898 the British excess of imports over
exports had risen to eight hundred and
eighty million dollars, while in the
United States the balance was enormous
ly the other way, the excess of exports
over imports being six hundred and
fifteen million dollars.
The keystone of general manufacture
ing industry is engineering, and this is
founded on pig iron. For the successful
making of pig iron, ore, coal and lux are
needed, and the engineering supremacy
of Great Britain used to be thought
secure because of her natural advantages,
ironstone, coal and limestone close to-
gether and all near to the sea. But
already British coal is getting deeper
and more difficult to win; much of the
ore has been worked out, and nearly the
whole of the ore for a most important
make of lron. namely, that used in the
making OF Bessemer steel. is brought a
thousand miles over sea from Spain.
The United States has the advantage of
cheaper coal. better ore and superior
facilities for working it.
Up 10 ten years ago Great Britain led
the ir~on-produclng countries of the
world; but in 1890 the United States
wrested the pre-eminence from her, and
held it most of the time ever since. Up
to 1855 England was ahead of the United
Skates in her steel product; in 1898 the
two countries were about equal; but
during the last five years the United
States has scared away from England
until the American steel product is
double the British. Germany, also, has
passed England, and has taken the
second place after America. In pro-
duction of coal, the United States, ut
the last date when comparative statistics
were accessible, in 1898, was nearly
equal to England, and it is probable
that the present year will find her ahead
here. also.
The American gain has not been due
altogether to natural advantages. The
writer Of these articles frankly comedies
the fine industrial qualities of what he
describes as practically a new race in
America. and he writes with unfeigned
admiration of the energy, boldness and
magnitude Of American industrial opera
tions and the improved processes and
enormous output of American steel
Boston Herald.