The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-28
BRITISH TRADE IN PERIL
Manufacturers Alarmed at Ameri-
can Competition.
Orders Filled With Greater Despatch
Handicap OF the English Unions
Plans for Keeping Foreigners Out
Of the South African Market.
ts,ecial cables,am-cepyrighted.)

LONDON. Oct. e..-Ihsre hiss ben
most significant manifestation of pu Lie
opinion in England especially this week,
upon point of which America should
take the fullest cosnizance. Am rican
competition. principally in foreign or
colonial markets. has reached such pro-
portions that Great Britain is now thu
'oughiy alarmed. American enterprise
has not been slow in taking adven age #
the situation, hut it is only recently tEzt
serious apprehension has been aroused
in England
Even now the chief cause of Ameri an
success is not recognized except in the
engineers trade and there British manu-
facturers are unable to cope with It.
The fatal handicap Of the British en-
ployer. as American manufacturers are
fully aware, is the arbitrary restriction
eli the trades unions. which limits t. an
absurd extent the amount of Work which
both men and machines shall do.
This limitation is quite distinct from
The regulation OF the hours of labor with
which trades unions in all countri deal,
and the effect by the application is TO
make labor, when measured by &C ual ac-
complishment instead of by daily wages.
far more expensive in England than any
where in the world 1t will be lcrg
time before British workman real z, this.
1t will be long time before British
worknen realize the suicidal azure OF
their policy. Meantime British markets
will remain at the mercy of .hmeriean
and German competition.
Ignorance of the true nature of the
situation is manifested everywhere in the
widespread discussion OF the situation now
filling tae press. The danger of Americans
securing vast contracts for railway eX-
tension in South Africa is the principal
text Of tie debate There are loud de-
manGs that English manufacture be a con-
Aition OF all contracts to which few sane
writer's protest with the obvious question
Why should South Africa be heavily taxed
unnecessarily for the benefit OF few Eng
lish manufacturers?
Nobody, strangely enough, undertakes to
discover why English firms cannot deliver
goods within reasonable time and at
prices within 90 per cent of American
quotations. 1t SEEM % be taken quite for
granted that the ie'e explanation lies
in Americas superior .ural advantages.
The truth is that this accounts for only
perhaps 10 per cent of the British handi-
cap. The following from the Daily Tele-
graph gives an idea of the present state
of the British mind.
Inc bElrlSn pecpie are desperately ALA
ious TO see the Americas Cup back in the
old country. but they prefer even more
to know that the fastest mail steamer
bad her home in the docks of the Mersey.
Competition is becoming remorseless and
the dangers of monopoly are sweeping
into the past. Not many years ago such
an angry cutlery as that raised at the
statement that great engineering con-
tracts in South Africa mad been placed in
the United States would have been i'm
possible
THE British iron and steel masters
would have laughed incredulously at the
suggestion that American rivals could
produce work more quickly and cheaply
than themselves. There is no such laugh
ter today. The British public has not
forgotten that an American bridge crosses
the Atbara and that it was placed there
by American engineers because no British
firm would guarantee its completion
within six months of the time specified
On the ether side of the Atlantic. What
ever TIE reasons were. the fact remains
q standing reminder that the race is to
the swift"