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The great gain was in France, Germany and Great Britain, which are the largest shoe manufacturing countries in Europe and are likely to be our severest competitors in neutral markets and in our home market if the duty is taken off, after they have conformed to the new methods. No man in his senses can suppose that those giants in the industrial world are going to lie supinely upon their backs and surrender one of their most important industries to the United States. Henceforth we must expect that the introduction of our goods there will involve more and harder work and some sacrifice of profit. There may be room yet for a considerable increase, but the prospect is not alluring enough to justify any neglect of the home market, which is always growing, and where the consumption of shoes is greater per head (or shall we say per feet) than anywhere else in the world.

One of the above letters suggests the danger of American shoe manufacturers setting up in Canada, or some other cheap labor country, and producing for the American market, in case the 25 per cent duty on boots and shoes should be removed. This danger is not fanciful; it is very real. More than one manufacturer, when he has had a labor difficulty, has expressed the wish that the duty were repealed so that he might do that. None, so far as we know, considers foreign markets good enough to tempt him abroad, but there are many who would produce for this market wherever they could produce at the lowest cost.

But even if no Americans should go abroad to manufacture, foreign manufacturers might and probably would after a little time, if there were no duties, compete here in a way to make the labor question of acute interest. The following comparison of wages of the principal classes of shoe workers in different countries, compiled from the latest statistics of the Department of Labor, shows how difficult or impossible it would be to maintain the present scale of American wages and hold the trade:

Comparison of Daily Wages of Several Classes of Shoe Workers. Canada. England. France, Massachusetts.

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It is impossible to make a perfect comparison in all cases, because conditions differ in different countries and factories, but the foregoing figures are all for men and are medium or average.

Reports from Germany since the introduction of the new machinery are lacking and some of the data from England and France are wanting, but the figures given will suffice to show the general range. Until within a very few years more than 90 per cent of all the boots and shoes worn in Germany were made in small shops and chiefly by hand. In 1894 the weekly wages of journeymen shoemakers in that country ranged from $1.66 in Breslau to $5.23 in Bremen, and in other places they were from $2.50 to $3.50. That is, they were little more for a week than similar workmen in America get for a day. A consular report says that in Berlin the average earnings per year in the different factories are for men $142.80 to $214.20; for women, $47.60 to $119.00, and for youths of both sexes from $47.60 to $117.10. Doubtless they are somewhat higher now, but they are still very low compared with earnings in America.

It will be said that the American workman turns out a greater product in the same time than any foreign workman. As a rule this is true, but the report from which the above table was compiled shows that foreign operatives of the same classes work more hours per week than those in Massachusetts -for example, 59 in England, 60 in Canada and 60 to 72 in France, as against 58 in Massachusetts. Probably the longer time abroad makes up for the slower speed.

If it should be allowed that the weekly product of the American workman is greater by 20 per cent than that of his foreign competitors, the labor cost here would still be more than 50 per cent greater than in Canada, 90 per cent greater than in England, and 95 per cent greater than in France. This would give those countries a dangerous advantage in competition.

It is quite possible, as many manufacturers and shoe workers believe, that the 25 per cent duty is largely inoperative, be

cause of the superiority of American skill, organization, enter-
prise and general conditions. But this is peculiar to the shoe
industry and is not likely to continue. In many industries
foreigners equal us and in some they surpass us.
Is there any
reason to doubt that the people who make the fine china of
Dresden and Limoges, the exquisite laces and embroideries of
the Netherlands and Switzerland, the unsurpassed cottons and
woolens and textile machinery of England and the fine linens
of Ireland and Scotland, can and will in a short time, now that
they have introduced American shoe machinery and methods,
show equal proficiency in this comparatively new factory in-
dustry? In those other lines they press Americans very hard,
in spite of much higher duties than that on shoes. They have
simply been neglectful and backward in shoemaking, but it
will be a serious mistake to count upon their so continuing.

Protection is and must be national. Owing to differences
in industries and in world competition, its direct benefit is less
to some than to others, and may be less needed at one time
than at another; but it benefits all alike indirectly, and no class
should permit itself to be turned from it by prosperity, by
temporary conditions, by any conceit of superiority, by any
mistaken conception of it as a "local question," or by the per-
sistent efforts of the Cobdenites to "divide and conquer."
Shoes and cottons and woolens and silks, the finished products
of the farm and mine and the finished products of the factory,
must stand together or they will fall together. Duties may be
and in due time should be readjusted to conform to new con-
ditions, but at no time and in no industry should the great and
beneficent principle be abandoned or be considered no longer
necessary, for like an efficient navy, it defends us in war and
secures us in peace.

The Dingley act was passed for the purpose of restoring prosperity to this country and for the building up of a home market for everything that Americans could produce. It did it well. Clinton (Mo.) Republican.

Senator Wellington of Maryland has introduced an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the holding of fortunes exceeding $10,000,000 by any one individual in the United States. In case

of such holding the amendment provides that "the excess shall all be condemned, whether or not as a public nuisance, a public folly or a public peril, and be accordingly forfeited into the United States Treasury." This is a good bill, but it is capable of improvement. If we are going to despoil the rich, why not divide the proceeds amongst the poor instead of giving them to Uncle Sam, who has already more than he needs?Commercial Bulletin.

BRITISH INDUSTRY IN 1902.

BY J. W. ROOT.

AUTHOR OF "STUDIES IN BRITISH NATIONAL FINANCE."

HE

immense activity experienced in almost every branch of industry in America last year was a long way from being reflected in Europe; Germany and Russia indeed, have been passing through a time of unexampled depression. depression. Great Britain fell midway between the two extremes, and it was only in the latter part of the year that things began really to get bad. This is an unexpected outcome of the end of the South African war, which it was prophesied would be followed by a veritable boom, both on the stock exchange and in trade, but like most other anticipated events, it was found to have been fully discounted, while in some quarters over-preparation had been indulged in. Nor is this anything to be surprised at. While the war lasted, something like five to seven million dollars a week were expended in different directions, a good deal in war material at home, and with the eonclusion, this, of course, all came to an end, and great numbers of men found themselves thrown out of employment just at the time when the army reservists were being discharged and seeking to re-enter their former occupations. Thus there was a glut in the labor

market, making the falling off in legitimate trade appear worse than it really was.

Though the total volume of Great Britain's foreign trade is still far in excess of that of any other country in the world, it constitutes only a fraction of the internal turnover, consequently it is the material condition of the country itself that has to be looked into. This has continued favorable, though there are not wanting distinct evidences of an approaching change. Agriculture occupies a much more important place in the national economy than is often supposed, and immense as the import of food products annually is, the home production is much greater. It is satisfactory to find, therefore, that farmers had a fairly good season; any complaints they have to make being less with regard to the extent of their crops than the bad condition in which part of them were harvested owing to successive spells of bad weather. On the other hand, for anything in sound condition good prices were obtainable; not the prices they were accustomed to get fifteen or twenty years ago perhaps, but they have by this time become reconciled to the modern basis. Possibly

they may have been too eager in disposing of live stock, which is not easily replaced with all the ports closed against foreign animals, and for this they may suffer later, as the money they obtained in exchange is of little use unless it can be turned over freely.

Any setback to British industry cannot be attributed to agricultural depression. If any one in the United States were asked to suggest the controlling force in their prosperity or adversity after agriculture, probably railroad construction and develop ment would be named. This plays no important part in Great Britain, simply because there is no room for it. The thousands of miles of new track annually laid in America are represented by two or three hundred at the outside, and even then the object is generally to shorten some existing route, and not to tap new districts. Outside the highlands of Scotland and the more mountainous parts of Wales, it would be difficult to find a place that has not within a few miles of it, some sort of railroad facilities. Ship-building really occupies the place of railroad construction in British industry, and the immense activity in this has been quite a feature for several years. But within the last few months it has undergone a collapse, and in several of the leading centres not more than half the men are at work. Nor is there much immediate prospect of improvement. There is more tonnage in the world just now than can be profitably utilized, and either over

sea trade must unexpectedly expand, or time must be allowed for regular wear and tear and losses, to wipe out the surplus. But these at any rate are being made good, consequently the situation in Great Britain is much the same as it would be in the United States were all the big railroads to announce that further extensions would cease for the time being, and only repairs would be carried on.

Another cause of slackening is to be found in the electrical industry. This never attained to anything like the dimensions reached in either America or Germany, and there is no room for anything like the collapse experienced in the last named country. But there is scarcely an

important town or city in Great Britain that has not now complete, and in working order, its electric car and electric light installations, and in some of the more thickly populated industrial districts, there is quite a network of the former. They have, too, created activity in other directions. Many of these lines of communication did not previously exist; where they did the system they were worked by was horse traction. There was no difficulty in disposing of the horses the last few years, whenever they were any way fit they were sent to the war; when not good enough for the purpose, they were wanted to take the places of those that were. Electrical traction on the other hand had to be generated by steam, which created a large additional demand for coal, and so kept the colliery dis

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