The Lewiston teller. (Lewiston, Idaho) 1900-1905, 1901-07-18

got there first
Henry Phipps of the Carnegie Com-
pany believes that England has run be-
hind the United States
IN industrial and COM Follow
mercial affairs because Old.fashioned
its methods are old Methods.
fashioned and its labor
Is inferior, and he gives an illustration.
Sir Lothian Bell, president of the Iron
and Steel Institute, who is one OF the
largest producers Of pig iron in Europe,
ala not alter his furnaces for twenty-eight
years, although in the meantime the as
ISOLATION of which he was the leading
spirit published $50 bcoks concerning
improvements that he did not adopt.
| When he found that the Americans were
underselling him he made an inquiry,
which resulted in his sending for the
con 'truction engineer of the Carnegie
Company to modernize his furnaces.
That is the reason, Mr.. Phipps says,
why we can undersell the world-the
superiority of American methods, the
intelligence and the skill of American
workmen and the superiority of Ameri-
can machinery which our workmen have
themselves invented. Nearly every inn
portant Improvement in mechanical in.
dustry can be traced to the ingenuity of
some mechanic, and you very seldom
find that in England.
Speaking of England's decadence in
comparison with the advance Of the
United States, the his
tory Of the iron trade, Rapid
which is the basis Of Growth Of Iron
modern industry, Of Trade.
fers striking com.
parison. In the middle of the eighteenth
century France was the great source of
supply. England and Germany pro-
duced little and were about equal; the
United States none. During the next
100 years England distanced France,
while the United States won the fifth
place in the list Of iron producing ma
tons. At the close of the nineteenth
century the United States had taken the
first place, and today its iron is sold in
every city of England and continental
Europe.
For several hundred years England
has been the balance wheel of the COM
mercial world, but if the present in
dustrial revolution continues she can no
longer be relied upon to perform that
function, and the United States must
bear the burden England has borne.
The Englishman has stood in war, in
commerce, in industry, and in in
>tellectual activity as the personifcation
of energy and determination, but at last
he begins to show symptoms of decay.
He has fallen behind in commerce, and
ia the Boer war a lack of military
proves and ability has been shown what
has never occurred in English history
before. Thinking people attribute this
to various reasons, chief of which is the
absence of the progressive spirit and the
lack of frugality among the working
classes.
The savings banks of New York state,
with population of !, 900. 600. contains
more deposits than
Americans those of Great Britain
Are Thrifty and with six times the
Saving. number ofinhabitants.
The French people
have even greater thrift. Another had
sign is found in the increase in the con
sumption Of liquor. Although the
manufacture of beer and spirits in Great
Britain has very largely increased, her
exports have fallen off, and the annual
consumption Of beer and distilled spirits
is now about thirty one gallons per capita
of population, while in the Ur tied States
it is only fifteen gallons. Germany is
generally regarded as the great beer
drinking nation, but her people do no,