Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-08-24
England Is D[|)lY|NC
American Trade Invasion Has
Brought England to Realize
Its Condition.
Leading Journals DISCUSSING the
Industrial Decay Of the
Briton.
T.R. s nottingham Correspondent
Tells Of Plight the Britisher
Is In.
Special to Times-Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
4 Nottingham, England Aug. 10.-Up-
permost amongst topics of national dis
cussion in this tight little isle continues
that of the American trade invasion, 1t
is coupled with the trade inyasons by
Germany, by France and by other up
to-date folk, who are throwing their i'm
proved wares upon the stupefied mil
4 lions of England at cheaper prices than
can be met thru obsolete and decadent
heenods OF production at home; but the
overshadowing fear is of competition
from the United States Partial realiza-
ton of even the present condition of
things is just beginning to dawn upon
ehe British Intellect and doctors of eco
Monies are Delabored by press and public
and urged to find remedy. All is seri-
BUSINESS now. A very few years ago
American competition in any line was
i looked upon as joke: today it is the
great yellow peril. Newspapers are
filled with instances of successful com
Y petition and with wonderful stories of
American resource. capablity and ener-
i gy. Chambers of commerce are demand
ing protection against America and Ger
many Yet all the while. nsiduously
and in ever-increa sing volume the flow
Il of American and German-made goods
Keeps up, While the British manufacture
er stands stock-still in dazed and SOL
emn contemplation of the tide he can
not stem. Harmsworth is one of the
most intelligent students of American
methods and one of the most courageous
critics OF British. His newspaper. the
Mail, rubs salt into every fresh wound
In recent article upon THE American
Invaders the Mail said: Men some
times speak as tho the dramatic coup of
a Morgan when he acquired control of
one of cur great shipping lines or of a
Schwab who outbids our steemakers or
of Philadelphia bridge builders who
capture the orders for our biggest via
ducts. comprised this invasion They do
not. Such items are merely the sensa-
tional incidents in vast campaign. The
real invasion goes on increasingly and
without noise or show in 500 industries
at once. From shaving soap to electric
4 motors and from shirt-waists to tele-
II
field. Today it is literally true that they
are selling American cottons in Man
chester. tim plate in Cardiff and steel in
A Sheffield. 1t only remains for them to
take American coal to Newcastie''
4 While American coal. altho the ex-
pertinent is being tried will not inter
4 fere with the local product in England,
it is interfering sadly with British mar
kets on the continent and especially in
the Mediterranean country-so much 80
that there is published talk of defensive
combinations; but the Mail might have
added that American boots (shoes) are
retailing successfully in Leicester, the
home of the English industry. and that
American hosiery "a trade term which
includes underwear and specialties) is
i on sale at both Nottingham and Leices-
ter the two great hosiery towns of Eng
land. But the Mail gets the drift of
things very accurately in the following:
Modern office furniture, from the
desk to the door mat, is nearly all
4 American in every up-to-date establish
nlent One sits on Nebraskan swivel
chair before a Michigan roll-top desk,
\ writing ones letters on Syracuse. type
= writer, signing them with a New York
fountain pen and drying them with a
j botting-s sheet from New England The
letter copies are put away in files manu-
featured in Grand Rapids
The value of typewriters brought to
! England from New York and Boston is
considerably over R4,oo0 a week, and
the greater part of this is clear profit or
high wages for skilled labor, as the cost
4 of the raw material used is trivial Eff
fort after effort has been made by Eng
8 lish firms to acquire this trade, but in
vain. The only serious competitor TO the
4 American machines for office use is a
/ Canadian typewriter.
/ Three years ago some cheap Ameri-
can blouses We're imported. and last year
\ the greater part of the English ready
made shirt-waist trade Went to Ameri-
ca. One English firm alone sold Ameri-
can blouses for women to the value of
+ $4,000. This was done Notwithstanding
the fact that the American manufac-
tuters would not look at small orders
and would only do business with the
largest jobbers.
Now that they have annexed our
blouse trade the Americans are entering
seriously into the hosiery business here.
They have found a Very profitable line
in mems braces. and iii high-class un-
4 derclothes they are likely for time TO
have things much their own way
Take another allied trade. A little
time since English boot manufacturers
began to feel the pinch of American
competition. They faced the situation
and began to improve matters. In many
/ cases they sent over for American boot
( making machinery. which is admittedly
superior to any formerly used here.
Their effort TO check the rising Ameri-
can tide has. however, 30 far proved in
vain. In 1898 America sent us shoes to
the value of 72.n4; in 1899. e147. 1874:
4 last year the figures had risen to s22s.
057
/ And the fight has only just begun
Even that erudite. conservative and
! high-priced standard, the Contemporary
/ Review, has admitted to it's columns
series of drastic articles upon The Eco
/ nomic Decay of Great Britain" Could
anything be more Complementary Sc
we're than this opening sentence:
1T begins to be more and more widely
recognized that most, If not all, of our
/ more important industries have either
become s,agnant or are actually decay
ing, and that Great Britain is living on
/ its capital"
A long list of causes for this state of
4 ~, &. r.,+ forth ono Of t,a,,.