The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-07-19

other-one insisting that we should dS
our own manufacturing in the United
States and the other declaring that We
should give our attention to agricultural
pursuits only and let other countrie:
make our manufactured products. With
the exception of a brief interval, those
who believe in this country doing its OWE
manufacturing have been in control OF
the government for the past forty years
This control has been maintained in the
face Of determined opposition, and only
after several exciting and bitter con-
tests at the polls.
Under this policy the United States has
at last reached a point where it is not
only able TO do its own manufacturing
but We have entered upon q contest to
secure a part of this foreign trade that
so far has been controlled by other coun-
tries.
1T does not pay to export the raw
product abroad. The charges of transpor-
tation are so great that it is much better
and more economical to manufacture the
product here at home and ship it In its
finished state. For years our chief ex-
ports have been agricultural products,
and we probably will continue to send
| abroad such exports for a few years TO
come, but the competition of the wheat
| raiser is very great The wheat fields Of
| South America, Russia and India are
constantly charging, and it VIII be to
| our interest in the future to use the
wheat we nav send abroad in feeding
| the employees in our factories who are
making manufactured goods to ship to
other countries. We have been exporting
coal and iron ore and permitting the
finished produts to be made il Great
Britain and other foreign countries. All
this is rapidly changing. Our exports Of
the raw product should and will de-
crease, and our exports Of the manufac-
! tured, finished, product will increase.
in order to enlarge our foreign trade
# is necessary to compete with the man
ufactories of Continental Europe. Sue
cessful competition is only possible when
we can make product, transport it to
countries where it is used and sell it
cheaper than the same product can be
sold when made in the countries of Eu-
rope. Our great competition in manufac-
tured products comes from Great Britain,
France and Germany. These countries
all pay lower wages to their worlkingmen
than we do in this country. We have
been able to Offset this advantage by our
skill in the use of labor saving machin-
cry and by our discovery of a way in
which one well paid, high priced, en-
ploye with a labor saving machine can
do more wor kthan six Iaborers not SO
well paid can do without a labor saving
machine
THE exports Of our manufactured pro
ducts have wonderfully increased within
the past year. Our exports in iron and
steel products amounted to $130, 000O 600 in
1900 as against sS2,OOO,oOo in 1895. The
United States has not only supplied its
own wants, but it is competing to supply
the wants Of the world in steel in a thou
sand articles in which steel is the chief
component
The American workIhgmen reu-1v7s
higher wages, but produces with labor
saving machinery the product at lower
cost The American factory system is
more highly organized and more efficient
than any other. We enter ineo COMPETE
ton with the manufacturers of Europe in
Great Britain. France and Germany. We
are sending our sewing machines, bicy-
OACSS c15AAINilUAcA Al4lpAS4uCLlSs ECAtplAOllcS
and monographs into every nation in
Europe.
"Ous successful competition with Eu-
ropean manufacturers has so far been
largely in the new enterprises which have
been organized in this country in recent
years. The typewriter is an American
invention; so is the teuephone and pho
nograph; and nearly all the electrical ma
chineswhich are now in such general use
in the United States. These machines
have their origin here, the operatives
have become more skillful in the man
agement of their machines and the in
ventors have become more successful in
their improvement. We are invading
Europe with these new appliances and the
continent is becoming alarmed. Ameri-
cans are purchasing street railways in
London and there seems to be an inva-
sion Of Continental Europe by many of
our manufactured products.
This condition, OF course. will not long
continue, and eventually we will probably
be driven from those markets, but if we
have been able to compete with European
manufacturers at home we should in all
reason be successful in competition with
them in other countries to which they
send their manufactured products.
I'VE have been able to do what we
have done owing to our cheap raw ma
terial, and the skill and enterprise pos |
sessed by the operatives in our various
manufactures. We are producing the /
same product more cheaply than it can |
be produced in Europe, but we are still |
q O mr. in
cent years we have witnessed in this coun-
try the consultations Of very many cor |
porations into large and more powerful /
combinations. The corporation has con-
tinued to grow in capitalization and COM
bination OF interests until it surpasses /
anything dreamed of a quarter of a cen /
fury ago. Such combinations are in 1
large measure able TO control prices, and
in this respect there is a general fear /
among the people as TO the wisdom Of I
permitting them to exist. But, while /
they to a certain extent can control pri- /
ces. and destroy competition, yet it has /
been the experience Of those who have /
engaged in such enterprise that If the !
price Of a product is unduly enhanced. RI /
val combinations are quick TO spring up 1
tent a sbefore the combination was /
formed.
The ostensible object in many Of these
corporations has been to limit production /
to avoid ruinous and destructive competi-
ton and TO produce the output more
economically.
Modern invention has made it possible
for these corpora tons 10 exist The tel