Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-06-01
c Comparison CT British and
American Methods Shows
Latter's Superiority
CONSUL M'FARLAND'S REPORT
He Deems the Real Significance OF
Americas Commercial Invasion To
Lie in the Diversification of the Great
Bulk and Body of General Imports
British Public Often in Ignorance.
Special to Times Republican

Special to Times Republican
| Washington, ID. c., June LIN the
second volume of Commercial Relations
| for 1902. recently issued by the State
| Department, appears q report from
Consul Mcfarland. then at Nottingham
England. covering not only the status
deal features for his district, whicn
comprised Derby and Leicester as We'll
usual to such reports, but taking up IN
| a broad way some of the industrial
land economical questions which arise
| from a comparison of English and Am
erican standards and methods. 1t may
not. perhaps. be known in Iowa that
he has of late years been frequently
consulted as somewhat OF an authority
upon British industrial methods. HIS
services have been utilized, thru offlcial
channels, in u number of ways that,
naturally, would not become publicly
known, and the official publication OF
such report, which does not saive the
irritated wounds of English pride, Is
also unusual The manner in which
facts are presented makes interesting
reading. After reviewing the features
of an export business aggregatng ~
669,47S.77 in the fiscal year, the consul
says:
But the most significant develop
ments attending the American COM
mercial invasion have not been the
absorption of the match industry. the
identification of London, the campaign
De fn6 nm ~
like growth OF the American boot and
shoe trades, the encroachments OF the
meat trust. the all-conquering march
of the patent medicine, the spreading
grasp of the Standard Oil Company,
the quiet acquisition of financial pre-
miership. nor yet the transference Of
the Atlantic carrying trade from Brit
ish to American ownership. These
are the outward and sensational feat
ures. The real significance lies In the
diversifcation OF the great bulk and
body of general imports. Four years
ago, not only in the larger provincial
cities but even in London. American
goods Of almost any description We're
curloslties. There were sewing ma
chimes, typewrlters, an occasional roll
Ter top desk, timed fruits, and a few
other Yankee inventions which We're
amiably tolerated as curiosities, but
the idea of serious American compete
ton in any common line was treated
with contempt. Within two years that
contempt gave way to wondering APP
prehension and in the past year has
become a serious national concern, to
be discussed ponderously upon every
editorial page in the island, in news
papers set by Linotype and run off
American perfecting machines. BY the
time England was partially awake, Am
erican boots and shoes were selling in
Northampton, hosiery in Leicester,
cutlery in Sheffield, underwear in Not
tingham, while English crops were be-
ing cultivated and reaped with Ameri
can machinery. Agencies for a hun
dred different lines of manufacture
have been established, and the floors
and counters of retail stores not only
in the cities but in the smaller towns
and villages are stocked with Ameri-
can goods. The public does not always
know when it buys American goods,
and frequently the dealer does not
know that he is selling them, for to
silence the prejudice of both they gen.
orally carry an English label and the
address only of the London agency.
1t is not an infrequent experience to
hear an Englishman delightedly descant
upon the satisfying progress of British
inventions, when all the time he is eu-
logizing some detested Yankee device
that has been an old story in the Uni
ted States for ten years. To catalog
now the American articles common on
the English market would be simply
to enumerate the common utilities,
from machinery of all kinds to ladies'
patent hair curriers', from fresh meats
and provisions to liver pills, from oil
stoves to mouse traps, from cottonseed
oil to shaving soap. There have been
some distinct failures, in each case at
tributed to the unusual quickness and
enterprise shown by English manu-
facturers as we'll as to the ill-advised
and half-hearted efforts of American
exporters. One notable Illustration was