The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-24
OLD ENGLAND STIRRED Up
FEARS AMERICAN AND GERMAN
COMPETITION In COMMERCE.
AND INDUSTRY
oUTSTRIpPED BY HER RIVALS
Unless She Adopts the More Modern
and EnterDrisinG Methods of
Other Nations Her
Fate Is Sealed.


aroused by. the series Of articles now
appearing in these columns on the urgent
necessity there is for England looking to
ner commercial laurels, Is exemplified by
the Iacc that both the press and our
standard magazines are taking UP the
subject In most serious vein. The ex-
tracts which are given below are culled
from the Fortnightly, the Contemporary,
and Casters, all periodicals whose ut
terances, emanating as they do from the
pens of experienced and expert writer's.
deserve attention and thoughtful cons;d-
Grafton. They may seem pessmistic, per-
maps, but the warnings they convey can
not be disregarded with impunity. Our
commerce is at stake; in other words, our
empire.
In an article by "Calchas," entitled
viii England Last the Century," which
appears in this months Fortnightly, the
writer declares that eff we cannot keep
our trade we cannot keep our empire"
THE ISSUE OF THE CENTURY.
THE broad issue for the twentieth CEN
tury Is whether Great Britain or the
German empire at the end of the next
two or three generations will possess the
relative ascendancy in trade and its in
separable attribute of sea power 1t Is
obvious that either or both may be sur
passed by the United States. Between
these three the contest must be decided
Ine result in our case absolutely depends
upon the timeliness and intensity with
which we may realize that this must be
the actual problem of the new century.
whatever view may be taken of the ulti-
mate solution.
Unless the empire is re-engined-the
metaphor is naturally suggested by the
Atlantic triumphs of the Hamburg
steamers-we shall be outstripped.
We are, in short, nation In jeopardy,
out We are not a nation in decadence, and
1t Is as certain that our future for an
other century at least is in our hands as
that of Prussia was in those Of Stein and
Scharnherst in the period of reconstruct
ton after the debacle of 1906
IL we go on as we do now, there need.
of course, be no difficulty in drawing our
horoscope TO the nation which is SUI
preme in the scientific spirit the TWEEN
tieth century must belong, and If Eng
land is to remain the international fgno-
ramus and to be dependent more and
more upon America and Germany for her
electricians and chemists, and for all the
newest Appliances in her Oldest trades
then the wavering balance in which the
future of the country hangs must drop
downwards.
The British empire as yet has tine,
time, time. to send the stimulus of a
new national spirit, strenuous and keen.
deriving its Invaluable strength from It's
urgent sense OF necessity, throughout
every class OF her people, from top to
schools
''Twaaty years hence it may-it prob
ably WILDE already too late.
oUsTED FROM EVERYWHERE.
the Contemporary Review for December:
German goods are not constantly ris
ing IN intrinsic value, but they Dust Eng
lsh manufactures in every market In the
IN the iron and steel Manufacture hnr
annual product being now almost doubIa
tnat Of England, while last year, for the
t GFs1 tline' the American output of coal
great international competition in ma
cchinery America easily beats England.
II Is clear that the serious decline of
england as great Industrial center has
begun. The energy of Engllshnnen Will
certainly lead them to make prodigious
efforts but America has even greater en-
ergy, and Infinitely greater resources
while both Germany and America dis
play greater Intelligence and originality
than does England. All these cons:dera-
tlons, therefore, point to English indus
trial decline
'Imperialists think that England, as a
great Industrial country, will be saved by
her oversee empire. There can be no
greater delusion;. Every British colony
British colony shows a distressing ten
dency to buy in the most convenient
market.
England has been annexing terri
tories which are, economically speaking,
of no use. No effective demand can
come from the Soudar or Uganda, and
class continental city is of more value
to England, from the economic point of
view, than tens Of thousands of SQUARE
miles in Africa.
I'VE NAV tharafOra racro nd
schemes for maintaining England's indus
trial supremacy as all doomed to fall
ure."
WE MAY BE TOO LATE.
Mr.. Louis easier, writing in Casters
Magazine for the present month on ''l'ne
Industrial Supremacy of Great Britain
utterS the following note of warning:
Britain was the first smelter of iron
ore among modern nations, but It is
open to doubt whether there is in Great
compare IN capacity with the best fur
naces now smelling iron In America
Tor shipment to Europe Britain was the
IlrsI maker Of coke for smelling and
ovens nave long been antiquated and
she Is only now tardiIy adopting ovens
ana plant of foreign design. There is
nothing to prevent an English Or Scotch
nrm from having blast furnaces as large.
gtlld COKE, ovens as perfect and both as
t taaoor-s 5orIag as in America. Simply.
then they may be too Iate''
IN the same article the writer saws:
In the matter of industries we con
ceive that the real trouble may be
summed up in four things-oveT- onI'1
sefvatism imperfect distribution of Iahor
lnsuhcient specialization, and the tyran
ny OF Iapor. The greatest blow to Brit
ish industry was dealt when the trade
unions were allowed to get their hands
into works management The ishon
steward Is the curse of masters and men
L.
that every man does the smallest nos
sible amount of work spread over fine
longest possible number of hours. No
Industrial system can survive the BLIGHT
ing influence of such practices as Vera
revealed during the engineers strike
and which prevail more or less-generaIly
more-in all the industries in the conn
try In which trade unionism is strong
The century upon which we are now
entering will witness such contest for
supremacy in trade that the world has
never yet seen, and under conditions IF
which the world has only begun to have
experience. At the beginning of the
an industrial factor in the worlds econ
eplies, We're a negligible quantity. AT
the beginning of the twentieth Century
they seem to hold the key to the situa-
ton.
The most formidable fact with which
industrial England is confronted at the
opening of the Twentieth century is
American competition. That competition
at the present time almost affects and
threatens the three staple British indus
tries of iron, shipbuildfng and engineer
Ing: Never were these industries so
active, prosperous and expansive as in
the two or three closing years Of the
century We have just left behind US
Never were these industries so seriously
threatened by assaults from without as
in the first year of the new century,
PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION,
Washin gton, ID. c., March 4th, 1901.