The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-21

less than the corresponding cost in this country, despite the fact that wages there are materially higher, But the cost Is not in any two cases the same. The cost of labor was phe- nomenally low. In the case of a rod mill brought to my notice. 1t was less than As. ton of rods. In the case Of billets 1t has been under As. per ton. In the case of rails. 1t Is probably. on an average. not more than 65 per cent what 1t Is in this country. In the more finished forms of material 1t Is more than in the lower forms. but whatever 1t may be. 1t Is always con- trolled by the fact that the output of given plant Is usually two or three times that of kindred plants in Eu- rope, with only half to two-thirds the number of hands here employed to run 1t. The Industrial Commission stated the average cost of the conversion of pig iron into steel billets at 6s. Sd, and the average incidental expenses at s.. but this is much too high for the best plants.
 The combination of up-to-date plants. economies and improvements has enabled our American rivals. pay ing the highest wages known in the trade, to produce plates at cost of only 3s Sd. per ton for labor, averag- ing some 225 tons of plates per shift One mill at Homestead works has pro- duced 1.O49 tons of sheared plates in twenty-four hours. which is at the rate of 3l5.000 tons In 300 working days. A forty-inch cogging mill at the Illinois works at Chicago produces 100000 to 250,00 tons per year. These results are not edualed in our own mills. And yet there Is no reason to suppose that our plate mill practice is generally much behind that of oth- CT countries. It was until lately, if 1t Is not now, in advance of that of any other country. If it has now fallen somewhat behind the best American practice, probably not mAch ground has been lost.
 Tn the matter of nominal wages Great Britain occupies an intermediate place between Germany and the Uni ted States. being, however, not so much higher than the Germans as we are below the American level
 The higher American nominal wage rates do not. generally. appear to op- crate to the detriment of American manufacturers. On the contrary, 1t is universally admitted that tho real wage rate--the labor cost per unit of production-is less in the United States than in any other country. The best comparison of American and British CTS wages that I know of, and one of the most recent, Is that contained In the report of my colleague on the American Commission of the British Iron Trade Association in 1901, MT Axel Sahlin, who obtained from the Association, binding them to buy their barb from them. The United States Steel Corporation guar antees the Canadian jobbers a profit of 10 per cent, and handles the trade with dispatch. and In a thoroughly satisfac- tory manners. The price is one at which English manufacturers would be quite prepared to do business.
 X Pretended investigation.
 Secretary Shaw must know. as does every ex-member of the commission, that the pretended investigation which that partisan body made of export prices was a farce, and that It is ab- surd to draw conclusions from the data obtained in answer to the scat tering letters of inquiry sent out by the commission.
 The schedules of inquiry were sent to only 2,000 of the 600,000 manufac- turing establishments of this coun- try-that IS, to only one in every three hundred. In the next place, only 4l6 replies were received. Of course. as Commissioner Phillips says, the an SNcIS were HldlIlJ lTOH tnpSS NHo were not guilty. The guilty ones did not volunteer information which would incriminate them before the American public. Moreover. they doubtless understood the makeup of the commission and knew that 1t did not want evidence of the great extent of this business. Hence. nearly of the guilty manufacturers either re- trained from answering at all or put in such ridiculous and asburd an- swers as they supposed would please majority of the commission, Under the circumstances 1t Is remark able that even seventy-five manufac- turers admitted that they were dis criminating in favor of foreign custo- mers At this rate more than one hundred thousand American manufac- turers are favoring foreigners.
 lth-p. lwtk heelV wSyw e-gi aaetkn
 Steel Plates Cheaper to Foreigners.
 Many of the shipbuilders who testi- lied before the Congressional Merchant Marine Commission, which has been taking testimony in various cities since last April stated that foreigner ship builders were purchasing steel plates, angles etc, of American manufactur- CTS much cheaper than American ship builders could obtain these products. When the commission was sitting in cleveland, O., MT. James D. Wallace, of the American Ship Building Company, stated that American steel was deliv- cred at Belfast for s24 ton, while the