The Savannah morning news., 1904-09-19
ARE WE TOO SLOW A..

AS a people we Americans have got
into the habit of fattering ourselves
that we are about the fastest
on the international pike. We lay claim
to the distinction of leading all con-
temporaries in politics, diplomacy,
manufactures, public schools and about
everything else. 1t has become a ia
miliar saying that an American me-
chanic is rs to SO per cent. more eff
cient than a European mechanic, and
that our labor saving machinery is the
best and most economical in the
world. In view of these facts it is as
refreshing as a cold needle-bath to
have Sir William Ramsay. the great
British scientist. come over here and
tell us that we are too Slow as COM
pared with the Germans and the Brit
ish.
Manufacturers and business men of
the United States, said Sir William in
an interview a few days ago, are not
sufficiently alert to take advantage of
the recent discoveries of science The
majority of them, indeed, know little
about science and seldom read of its
new achievements. On the other hand
the Germans are perpetually alert for
new discoveries, nor do they hesitate
to take advantage of them English
manufacturers are far ahead of the
Americans in this respect" said Sir
William, and Germany, shows
clean pair of heels to both"
But why should our great manufac-
turers, the protected trusts, seek to
take advantage of the new discoveries
of ecience? They do not need them Mr.
Schwab recently returned from Essen
and said that the Americans had Moth
| ing to learn from the Germans in the
art of steel making. A Pittsburg
ed that Everybody well informed with
respect to the subject knows better"
| But the steel trust doesn't need any
| improved German methods in it's BUSH
ness. The tariff wall gives it COM
mand of the home market at its own
| prices, and if it wishes to invade the
foreign field. it can tax the home con-
sumers sufficiently to enable it to I'M
dersell the Germans in their own ter
ritory Notwithstanding their improved
processes. And so it is with various
other trusts. The trusts indeed, are
usually opposed to innovations and in
ventions. How many improvements
were there in telephone instruments,
for instance. until the monopoly had
been overthrown? Yet the quick wits of
electricians and other experts turned
out literally hundreds of new devices
for the Improvement of telephone serv-
ice, as the records of the patent office
viii show. But these devices were new
er adopted, because the monopoly
could get along without them. The
Standard Oil Company has been anoth-
err throttler of inventions and destroyer
of the hopes of bright inventors. It
is true that the great trusts are always
on the lookout for bright ideas that
will reduce the cost of production, but
they nearly always manage things in
such way that the originator Of the
new idea gets mighty little out of it,
Only recently there died in Pittsbure
in poverty an old man who invented
an annealing table used in one or
more OF the great steel establishments
The invention ought to have made him
millionaire. but a great corporation
appropriated" it. and notwithstand-
ing he appealed to the courts for re-
dress. he was never able to get dollar
from the corporation.
The Republican policy OF protection
stands between the trusts and the
necessity for them to hustle harder
than they ind convenient. That is why
slow"