The age-herald., 1901-06-17

mand of the European market, is the question of price. Owing to the char acter and design of American engines they can be constructed at less cost per unit of weight than European locomo- tives-and this despite the fact that American workmen are paid much higher wages than those of Europe. Another factor in the cost of locomotives for for eign trade is that they first have to be built, and are then taken apart, the parts placed in boxes and put on board a steamer, freight and insurance paid, and loading and unloading charges cov~ cred. Finally, mechanics are sometimes sent thousands of miles to set up and run the engines on the trial trip.
 The energy and intelligence of the American workman, his capacity fof handling relatively a large amount of work. and the extenive use of machine tools and improved machinery, are an offset to the higher wages paid, while the large home market makes the industry continuous all the year round, a factor in itself tending to reduce cost by equal izing manufacturing expenses. While America is able to supply everything that goes to make up locomotive. 1t sometimes happens. in the case of en- zines constructed for foreign railways. that a preference is expressed for cer- tain appliances or parts, of foreign man.
 
 when imported, but a rebate is allowed on exportation. so that the actual cost Is the same as in Europe, plus the freight
 Steel Now Used Almost Exclusively.
 The increase in the size and speed of the locomotive has in part become pos ible through the substitution of steel for iron. Boilers are now made of steel, and are capable of carrying a steam pressure of two hundred poundo to the square inch; thirty years ago one hundred pounds was the ordinary pressure. Ten der frames, tanks and cabs are also made of steel at the present time, and all the wheels under a locomotive and tender are steel tired, where formerly both the tender and engine whels were cast iron All this has been done through the great improvements in the manufacture of steel. which is now much cheaper per ton than iron was twenty years ago, here has been a close rela- tion between the development of the To- comotive the introduction of heavier steel rails and of iron and steel bridges.
 In fact, it would seem as if all tho clements of the problem were bound to- gether and solved by the production of steel at a low price.
 Tariff Has Little Effect at This TImes
 The question of the tariff has little eff feet one way or the other in the produc- tion of locomotives for the foreign trade by American manufacturers. In the first place, while there Is a tariff on foreign locomotives brought into the United States sufficient in itself to debar inn portations, it Is not an essential to the existence of the industry. American railroad companies prefer the American types of locomotives. On the other hand there Is a tariff on American-made loco motives imported into most of the coun- tries of Europe, South America South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. But. for the most part the railroads in these countries are owned by the government, and, the locomotives being ordered by them, the tariff does not affect the price at all. The proposed reciprocity treaties now being negotiated with foreign coun- tries will have an additional tendency to foster export trade in our locomotives; all commercial treaties of late years have largely carried clauses relative to machinery and locomotives in the agree ments between nations.