CHAPTER VIII

THE NEW COMMERCE

THE rapid change in America's trade conditions has been a fruitful theme of discussion of late. She is to-day a manufacturing exporter, instead of chiefly an importer; and is now in a fair way of becoming à creditor, instead of remaining a debtor, to Europe.1

The gross value of manufactures in America in 1870 was $3,385,000,000, an increase of 75 per cent. over 1860. Ten years later, in 1880, when the population had increased 30'6 per cent., the increase in the gross value of manufactures was 58 per cent., or a total of $5,349,000,000. In 1890, with a gain in population of 24.86 per cent., the increase in manufactures was 69 per cent., the total being $9,056,000,000. In 1900 the increase in population has been 21 per cent., and

1 With all the recent stir concerning things American it is somewhat diverting to read in the Edinburgh Review of 1820, such a series of interrogations as the following:

"In the four quarters of the globe who reads an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or statue? What does the world yet owe to American physicians or surgeons? What new substances have their chemists discovered? or what old ones have they analyzed? What new constellations have been discovered by the telescopes of Americans? What have they done in mathematics? Who drinks out of American glasses? or eats from American plates? or wears American coats or gowns? or sleeps in American blankets?"

the gross value of manufactures about 54 per cent. increase, or about 13 billions of dollars.1

Thus in a paragraph we may take note of America's stupendous growth of national production. During the period that the population increased 98.54 per cent., the value of her manufactures increased 260 per cent. Domestic consumption has more than proportionately increased, but is destined to be far in the rear of production. Consequently, it is clear that America must have foreign markets wherein to dispose of her surplus.

American supremacy in the iron trade has been built up in a decade by hard work; unbounded selfconfidence, unquestioned boldness in speculation, has brought the mechanism of iron-production, from the mining of ore to the handling of the finished product, to an efficiency almost marvellous. Between 1890 and 1899 the output of iron ore rose from 14 to 24 million tons, that of pig-iron from less than 8 to over 133 million tons, and that of steel from under 4 to 103 million tons. At the same time mechanical appliances have been brought to such a pitch of perfection that, whilst the average production per annum per man employed at blast furnaces in 1890 was 275 tons, it had risen to 354 in 1900. In shipbuilding alone, England retains supremacy; but even here she is warned that the New York Shipbuilding Company's yard "is in all respects the most modern and the most

1 In addition, the American flour mills are able to grind all the wheat annually grown in the entire country in eight months, and this, although over 100 millions of bushels were exported last year. It is the same with cotton; the cotton mills working only eight months in the year would produce all the cotton goods America consumes annually.

remarkable in the world," and Mr. Nixon, shipbuilder and ex-Tammany Hall leader, has announced that "notice is served upon Europe that, even in shipbuilding, we propose to go to the front."

This significant result, brought about within so brief a space of time, has not been due more to national policy than to huge natural resources and sheer hard work added to the extraordinary resourcefulness and business activity of American merchants and manufacturers in exploiting the products of American toil and ingenuity.

Many years ago, America was described by "Sam Slick" as "a land of hard work, with two kinds of slaves the niggers and the white slaves. . . . An idle fellow who runs away to us is clapped into harness before he knows where he bees. . . . He must either draw or be dragged to death."

I have seen this inordinate passion for hard work ascribed to the climate.' But, whatever the cause, America's achievements in commerce are certainly the result of downright industry.

Youth is everywhere evident-in commerce, in industry, in journalism, in literature-and, almost for the first time in American history, in politics. One natural explanation of this is, that under the new

1 "Residence in the neighbourhood of Chicago," remarks the London Speaker, "must be equivalent to taking a drug." Yet the Americans have not always been characterized for excessive industry. Mr. Henry Bradshaw Fearon, who visited America in 1817, says that it afforded "decided evidence of the prosperity of that country, which could admit so large a body of its citizens to waste in indolence three-fourths of their lives, and would also appear to hold out encouragement to Englishmen with English habits, who could retain their industry amid a nation of indolence, and have sufficient firmness to live in America, and yet bid defiance to the deadly example of its natives."

strenuous régime, there are no old men. To our eyes it is the great drawback of the American system, which throws, with reckless disregard, men as well as machines upon the scrap-heap. At Vandergrift, a model village attached to one of the most successful ironworks in America, we are told that "hardly a dozen persons can be found over fifty years of age." Wages are high, but hours are long. Philanthropy is building model villages, but no wage-earner may dispute conditions of labour with his employer. No consideration is shown to a man because he has become skilled. One of the main aims of American workshop practice is "to reduce by every possible means the number of highly skilled men employed, and more and more to establish the general wage on the basis of common and unskilled labour." Matching and doubling in the mill, they say, can be learnt in a few weeks. A heater can be made in six months, and it took a man who had been working previously on a locomotive, from October to the following June to pass through the various stages before he arrived at the position of roller.1

The master spares neither his men nor himself. The American business man sacrifices his life to his business. He has no companions out of business. "The American system," says Mr. Jeans, "does not provide either opportunities or a stimulus to cultivate the artistic, the literary, and the beautiful." The master comes with the men, and leaves after they have gone. No wonder is it that Allegheny City, a suburb of Pittsburg, is known as "Suicide City." Prosperity may be bought too dear, and America is paying more for her industrial

1 Iron Commission's Report, 1902.

success than we would care to pay; more, indeed, than humanity can afford.

To illustrate how the national intensity invades every walk and calling of life, from the bank president to the bootblack, we may take the case of the cottonmill hand. How is it, it has often been asked, that American mills, paying larger wages than are paid in Europe, can afford to compete with the European mills in the sale of cotton cloth? The industry is supposed to be conducted everywhere on the same principles. Looms can be run in one way only, that is, by superintending the movement of the shuttle by the operation. Take the case of a certain kind of print cloth: the case of labour per hundred yards is in Switzerland 2s. 6d. ; in England, 28. Od. ; in America, 1s. 8d. Yet the daily average was in Switzerland, 28. 03d.; in England, 2s. 8d.; in America, 3s. 6d. What is the solution. of the mystery? It is this: the average number of looms attended by one weaver in the mills of Switzerland and Germany was about two and half; in England, about three and a half; and in America, about six and a half. The larger number of looms worked by a single operative explains the higher wages by the day and the lower cost of labour by the piece. The larger number of looms run by one hand, the closer the attention required.

"The American worker's high earnings are," remarks a recent close observer,1 "realized at an expense of nerve power, which the European operative is not required to expend on her work. For every unit of pay received the American operatives are obliged to turn out more yarn, pounds or pieces, than the operatives in England; the English more than the German; and the German more than the Austrian."

1 Mr. Jacob Schoenhof.