Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-20
British Underbid by Americans.

1t is a singular coincidence which the
Panama commission might investigate with
profit that almost on the very day that
their determination to seek an open mar
ket was reached, the firm of J. c. White Il
Company, engineers and contractors of this
city, were awarded contracts for the con-
struction of railways in EnglInd and in the
Argentine Republic in competition with
German and British bidders
And they propose to American sup
plies, materials and machinery.
One of these contracts. amounting to
about $1j,CC0CC0 is for the construction of
about $50 miles of track for the Buenos
Ayres Central railway. The other contract
is for the construction of system of troll
ley roads about twenty-five miles long, in
the south OF England. connecting London
with various towns and villages in the
Kingston Surbton, Maiden and Wimbledon
districts, at Il cost of about $JUo0G0. The
third contract is for another system of troll
ley lines of similar length in the midlands
of England, TO connect the several cities
and towns in that section with the subur
ban lines Of the London United Tramways
Company.
If J. G. White & Co. can underbid British
and German contractors in building rail-
ways with American materials and supplies,
within sight of London and in the Argentine
Republic, | do not see why our politicians
should feel any concern for the welfare of
the manufacturing industries of the United
States, although there is something in pa
triotism and it is always better to patron
iZe your friends.
J. G.. White & Co. are not the only
American contractors who are doing work
in foreign countries with American mater
ial. The Westinghouse Company and the
General Electric Company have contracts
in all parts of the world. They are doing
work in London, under the very noses of
the strongest British companies; in Egypt,
India and Siam and two years ago | found
Pennsylvania company erecting the big
sest Viaduct in the world in Burma. The
Sultan of Turkey is buildng-a railroad from
Haifa via Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee
to Damascus with American rails, and
every bit of the ma terial used in the con-
struction of the lire from Damascus to
Mecca is American, as | wrote you not long
a-O
The Russian government recently offered
the steel trust contract for supplying
100000 tons of rails. and it declined be
cause the officers were not sure when or
how the ear was going to pay for them.
These facts ought to console Speaker Can
non, Mr.. DalZell, Gen. GrosVenor and other
statesmen, and the American Protective
Tariff League which is weeping Historically
for fear our industries will be ruined by the
action of the Panama commission.
There is a good deal of bluff in the threat
of the commission. however. and the man
ufacturers know ii. The announcement of
Secretary Taft, which the President APP
proved, was merely intended a warning
that they must give reasonable prices or
Trey would lose the business. There are
unmistakable evidences of .'hoId-up' and
the President and Secretary Taft thought it
would be a wholesale lesson if the commits
on should reject eXorbitant bids from
American manufacturers and buy a few
shploads of supplies in England or Ger
many.