The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1902-08-22
British Investigation of
Industrial Pre-eninence
of This Country
BRAINS AND STRENU0uSNESS
Two Qualities Combined IN woskmea
More Than Wonderful Tools ssd
Methods Secret Of SuoceSS-Rcport Of
British Iron Trade Association.

Labor .condit. ous in the iron ana steel
industries Of the UaIteG States, III con-
trast with these in the United Kingdom
and European countries generally. are
discussed at great length by The com
mission appointed by The British Iron
Trade Association. which recently visit
ed the United States and thoroughly
studied its great iron and steel manu-
featuring establishments
This commission consisted Of Nj, J.
s Jeans, whose name Is already well
known 10 the people Of The United
States as an authority upon these sub
iects5 Mr. Axel Sshiiu, al expert IN
bIasI-furnaCe work. NJ. EbsueEer
Parkes, whose special study was sheet
and bar-mHI practice, and Mr.. Enoch
James. who gave special attention 10
The steel industry; while Nj Eeans
special work was 70 report upon -cs
general economic and Industrial co15a-
lions
The report OF this commission sc
cerdtng % some extracts wesca have
reached the Treasury Bureau - Ss&tlS-
tics, points cut that II the CGs,s< States
the iron and steel industries z-s szeS 20
face with conditions that uzke both -hs
dearest anc cheapest Iaho- 81 present
&c be found IN the wc-I5-rE5 Sssrssl
IN point OF nominal remuneration AZ
he cheapest it the industrial and eco
ao-n5c results.
The workmen al American mills.
says Mr. Jamas in his share OF the re-
port are generally supposed 10 De
working much harder than they DO II
this country England, but this IS not
ny own view After much conversation
with many men in various branches wno
bad been employed in similar works il
England, and some of them subject to
ny ozR contrcE. The conclusion / have
arrived atzzis that the American work
men do not work SO hard as the men
a England.
Must be High-GIade Workmen.
They have 10 be attentive in guiding
operations and quick in manipulating
levers and similarly easy work. They
are also much more DESTROYS OF getting
out large quantities than IN England.
They are better paid and more regular
IN their attendance at the works, loss
Of time through drinking habits or 9TH
erwisc net being tolerated
Mn Sahlin II his section Of the re-
port says that the American workman
generally aaEsBires TO the higher grades
Of labor. leaving the purely manual Ia
Dor TO- workmeR from other countries
Thus II is, he says. that around
American blast furnaces the American
IS found in very decided majority.
lie may be g foreman, master ne
chanic, blast engineer, locomotive
driver or stove tender. but he will not
work eighty-four hours per week show
cling ore or wheeling scrap For these
duties are employed in the South the
negroes. aIk at the Northern furnaces
immigrants. mostly Irish, Slavs OF
Italians"
Americans Take the Good Places
On this question Of higher grade work
and higher, grade wages Of American
wcrkr1ens attention is called to the fact
that n certain works Polish and Hun
gaTian Iaborers were receiving 81
to $50 per day, while American rollers
working alongside OF them we're receiv-
ing on the average S12 per day of eight
hours.
The report quotes Mr. Carnegie as
stating recently that the average wages
Of men IN his employment at Home
stead was g per day. or an average Of
SIS per annum as the earnings Of iron
and steel workers in Lancashire and
SIS per annuin received by The steel
rollers il South Wales.
London Statist" Comments
On the question of cost Of living.
M. Jeans declares. as the result Of
his inquiries. that the average Amer
lean workman, IL most Of the essen
tials of lie. can live. mutatis mutandis,
as cheaply as he can in the Old Coun-
try
The Importance of The human fac
tor, says the London Statist' in sum-
marking this report, els fulIy realized
By all The members of The commission
Z is all very well 70 admire American
PANTS. the ingenuity OF machine tools
the devices for saving labor, and so
forth. But, as Mr.. Sahlin remarks il
= his special report, II IS not the guns
which VIII the battles. but the men who
stand behind them What the AEleri-
eaE adrGfTes and honors Is the ability to
do; that capacity in a man through his
own sagacity, nerve, enterprise, and
skill, 10 create and employ fortune.
Nobody is above his work
Everybody works. ana for the sake
Of work. and thus has been produced in
America within a generation an indus
trial Potentiality more wonderful and
more to be feared than all the factories /
and machinery and plants that these
workers have created
American Strenuousness.
1T comes to this. then, that Ameri-
can labor is not more efficient, though
It is better paid than ours: and that
American manufacturing development is
due to the persistent, unresting indus
try which once characterized the Britcn. !
but for which trade untonism and afh-
letics have given an apparently growing
cistaste.
All the reporters. however. seem
struck with the strenuous American life
The comparative absence Of a leisured /
class is noted as one OF the prominen, !
characteristics OF the principal cities /
and Industrial centeTs OF the United 4
States. In the avenues OF industry d /
man without a regular business, or who
is not concerned in the development Of /
some industry is as a fish out OF water.
Nowhere, we are assured. IS the strug-
ling youth more kindly ENCOURAGED.
more generously aided and more -eadii--
trusted Than II America; and il IS pleas,
ant 10 read Of an esprit dc corus auacpay