The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-12
Notes On The International
 Refrigeration Congress Al Vienna
BY. W. J. R USHTON

Austria and Germany and will probably | become so in the schools of other con tinental nations. "A tribute to the uni
 versality of the English language" you i may say perhaps, but more significant
 as evidence that the thrifty Teutun and his cousins are arming themselves with
 q two-edged sword with which to conquer
 the globes commerce. Indeed, the figure of the two-edged weapon does not put it 1 strongly enough The verbal armory of | the German and the Russian is becoming | polyglot. For instance, Dr. Siegmund l Brosche, president of the congress, well l comed the delegates 4n three languages,
 German French and English: and smong
 the agreeable. acquaintances made was | that of a Russian doctor who conve' sed
 with equal facility and charm in Ita'ian.
 GerIean, English and French.
 l We from the United States occasionally
 discussed our linguistic poverty as na- | ton and agreed that the great object les son of the congress to us was the ncces- sity for the teaching of modern languages
 in our common schools if we would hold our own in the traffic of the world. We
 might begin. I think, with Spanish. and l thus put ourselves on equal terms with | he Europeans who are taking the trade
 of the Central and South American coun- fries from under our very noses, as 1t 1 were. At any rate, hope that one of the results of the assembling of the congress l i'll this country in 1913 will be the begin
 ming of a propaganda for the teacl.ing of
 modern languages in our public sch )ols. We have been asleep much too long as
 it is.
 | But If the national pride of the dele 1 gates from the United tSates was hum | bled somewhat In the way I have in | dicated. 1t grew fat on the other things | which The con gress and their obser vation | made clear. One of these was our vast superiority in the application of refriger- l alton along nearly all lines, especially l those in the commercial and industrial l fields. In practice we are leagues and l leagues ahead of the remainder of the
 world, and if the next congress should | be held in Chicago, I venture to predict that the foreign delegates will be as-5 | founded by what they see. The nanu- | facture of ice in Europe is as a drop in l the bucket compared with the production | in America. The number of refrigerator cars-and they are crude cars at that. l In operation on the whole continent is but | as Q hands breath by the side of the l miles of admirably designed cars which | move daily with express speed over our l railway lines. We lead, too, in the lnulti- 1 plicity of the uses to which we put re- l frigeration. The European scientists and 1 technolcgists are now going over with 1 much thoroughness and patience a good deal of the ground we have already cov- | cred in a rough way, and their gleanings l will, of course, be as useful to us as to 1 them. In the production of cold the Ger man exhibits more economy than the l American, but in the handling of products I he wastes in labor what he saves in fuel l end other manufacturing cost. High 1 price of material and cheapness of labor l make the German careful on one side and 1 careless on the other. In America condi- 1 tons are almost the reverse, with conse- | quent results. We got our illumination l In. Vienna and Berlin; the German will l get his when he comes to the "stases l nf 1913 and we will repay him for the leaf we took from his book with one | from our own.
 | One of the notable effects of the con- l sress was the removal of the prejudice I inacontinental Europe againstt frozen | meat. Previous to the assembling of the congress- meat of this kind had never l been allowed to enter Austria; but partly l in honor of the event and partly through l information obtained at first hand from l delegates representing countries which export such meats, or consume theni gov- rnment permission was given for the en-
 try of an experimental shipment of 25 | tons. Since returning home I have been l advised that this initial shipment was a success in all ways, and is accepted as the | thin edge of the wedge of cheaper meat | into Europe. This is a great thing for the working man, as the cost of domestic I beef and mutton makes them luxuries In 1 which he can seldom indulge. I shall not | be surprised to learn that this cheaper meat will make the European laborcr and artisan more icontented and less inclined to emigrate. If such should prove to be
 the case. the powerful influence of Ger many and other European governments | will be exterted in the development of the | traffic, and thus the demand for Argen- | tine beef and Australian mutton will be enlarged almost immeasureably. The Limited States will get some of the indi- rect benefits of this increased prosperity | in Argentina, and may share in those which will be experienced by the anti podes
 l Before all this can be brought about however there several problems to l be solved, on which the transportation fcommission has been at work for some l time and on which 1t will continue to work during the recess of. the congress. | One of these is a better type of car or wagon than those now used on the con
 tinent. It is recognized that the Amcri- | can refrigerator car, with some slight lmodifications, could be adopted on tSe continent, and have complied with a l request to forward detail drawings of our l car. Another is the agreement upon a plan by which the customs duties imposed l by the countries through which the cars