The Washington times., 1901-07-17
AMERICAN TRADE SUPREMACY.

Washington, the following appears:
Americans are ousting us in business
largely because of their climate, their
longer working hours. their willingness to
to receive new ideas, their better plant.
and. perhaps. most OF all. because of
their freedom from hampering traditions.
I'VE have lost. or are losing. some
trades directly through bad legislation.
The tobacco. printing. and electric indus
tries are instances of this. Once Ireland
had fiourishing tobacco plantations. These
were purposely Killed In order that the
tobacco industry in our then American
colonies might be fostered. Our erstwhiie
colonies are now a rival nation. but the
revenue restrictions still make tobacco
growing here practically impossible.
There Is no Trasrn. climatic or other
"ssS=, why Ireland today should not pro-
duce great tobacco crops. short act Of
Parliament fostering the home growth of
tobacco by simplificstion of the coIIec-
uon OF duty. and a rebate-or even tenn
porary renission-of taxes on tobacco
grown within the Kingdom would create
new industry In Ireland at n bound
some of us would. as a matter Of taste
prefer the leaf Of the nicotina grown In
t>iikenny to Schleswig- -Holstein cabbages
doctored and Drowned in Hamburg.
In printing We have an immediate ex-
ample Of how legislation affects trade.
When. In 1891. the United States granted
limited copyright to foreign authors. IL
was provided that books to secure this
copyright, must be printed from types set
up In the United States, or from plates
made from the same. and that the plates
and transfers for pictures must be made
In America. This law has resulted in
transferring the printing of many OF our
best books to America. Naturally pub
fishers do not care to have the double
expense Of setting up in both countries.
so they import. This practice Is increas-
ing every year. The British compositor
suffers l turn to the current report of
the printing trade and find that in district
after district business Il recorded as
bad, dull, poor" At the same time
new books by English authors are largely
selling here. printed in America. Cause
and effect. And this will grow. unless
copyright Is refused to books Tot set up
in the Empire
IL Is easy to heap all the blame for our
repression on the British workmen. But
u Is rather the conditions which limit the
workman that are to blame than the man
himsen American employers declare
with one voice that the English mechanic.
wnen he crosses the Atlantic. makes the
finest and me=t reliable worker. But the
same men. with the same tools, turn out
less here than in America Not only does
the Western mechanic work longer, hut
he works harder. In America it takes the
work of six or seven men for a year to
turn out locomotive; In England it takes
fk.e.x Il.
much is a marked man, for his mates
know that If the work is paid by piece an
increase of output viii soon be followed
by reduction OF the rate CT pay. In the
United States employees think that the
higher wages their men earn the better
for the employers
fees of firm of American machine
agents in London. One was at the head
of an important English manufacturing
firm. the second was an engineer who had
lived ii Pennsylvania for some years. The
latter pointed out TO his brother machine
after machine that he ought to have.
You know. Tom, he at last declared en-
phatically. If l were In your place I'd
the scrap heap and have an up-to-date
plant right through. You'd double your
output and halve your expenses. Tom
listened carefully and put his hand to
he said at length, you may be right. 1
won't say that you're not But why
should / change? TIL old machines were
good enough for father and they were
good enough for grandfather, so / am
thinking they're good enough for me.
Climate Is a factor In competition
which must not be ignored. and climate
is against Us. We take things easier tina n
do men in the drier air of the north Allan
tic States. Consequently 1t has been found
time after time. even with willing work.
men, that the same output cannot be had
here even with equally up-to-date ma
chinery. As a case in point. big Eng
lish paper-making firm laid down an
American machine at cost of fl0.Oe,
guaranteed 70 turn out 800 feet of paper
minute. After few weeks it was found
that the average production was only
about half this
THE buyers wrote complaining where
upon the makers offered, if their English
representative was given charge OF the
mill for thirty days. to raise the produc-
ton to this point or take back the plant.
The representative went down TO the mill.
rented a small house with a big garden
and took over command. In few days
he had won the liking of every man there.
He effected some minor improvements,
bur not very great.
Then one evening he called the hands
together. Boys he said. your proprietor
is coming down tomorrow / want that
day made a red-letter day in the history
of the mill. Let us show him what we
can turn out when We try. Then in the
evening all of you come up to my grounds.
Therell be tables out there and chairs
and all the liquor you want
The men entered into the spirit of the
thing Next day they toiled as never be-
fore and the new machine registered an
output. of SIS feet minute The English
owner kept the machine. but the Ameri-
cans frankly admitted that 1t was impos-
sible to keep up the output here. Yet in
a score of mills in America the same kind
of machine is daily doing the ma INN m
work
Freight rates play very large part in
the possibilities of American competition
Transatlantic makers talk of their
cleverness in bringing goods $3.50 miles
and then undersellirg us. But the truth
Is that for some time it has cost less to
bring goods across the Atlantic than
across England. One large American
importer tells me that the rate of car
riage he pays from Boston to the mouth
of the Thames is less than from the
mouth of ThaHss to London.
american paper makers had the pull
here for some time because you could
convey paper from Maine or Massachu-
setts to London at the same or slightly
less rate than from Cardiff to London
"On the American railroads freight cars
are many times larger than ours, and the
rates for goods traffic are but a fraction
OF those demanded on our lines. English
railways obstruct goods traffic at every
turn and strangle many that would bs
otherwise fiourishing industries.
The lew rates for transatlantic traffic
may not continue much longer, however
IL is possible that Mr. Morgan has de-
signs which, while leaving the passenger
traffic of the Atlantic untouched. will
place the freight trade at his mercy.
me most unpromising factor in the
situation today is the way Americans are
preparing for the trades Of tomorrow
while we are largely contenting ourselves
with Keeping our own In older manufac-
tures- In the electric industry the fav-
orite excuse for our. backwardness has