OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE IN 1901. 533 



nearly equalized by the substitution of new processes and improved 

 machinery modeled on our own and the adoption of legislative meas- 

 ures aimed especially at our goods. It was pointed out in the 'Review 

 of the World's Commerce' a year ago* that, in the reports of the con- 

 sular officers for 1900, there ran 'along with a common note of satis- 

 faction, a warning, here and there, of a more strenuous competition, 

 which, in the end, may counterbalance our superior advantages to a 

 considerable extent and check our progress in the world's markets, 

 unless we equip ourselves in the meantime for the ultimate phases of 

 the struggle.' As yet, it cannot be said that Europe has made any 

 sensible progress, in actual performance, toward more strenuous com- 

 petition. The measures adopted thus far are almost wholly tentative 

 or preparatory, and it may be that those which involve restrictive legis- 

 lation will be abandoned if the United States should consent to modify . 

 its tariff policy and permit the importation of a larger volume of Euro- 

 pean goods in return for similar concessions. 



An English Vieiu of American Competition. 

 Upon the other hand, the decline in our exports of manufactures 

 is taken in some quarters to indicate a subsidence in the aggressiveness 

 and force of our competition. The London Times of January 7, 1902, 

 in a careful review of our material progress in 1901, inclines to the 

 view that we may have reached 'the top of the wave of commercial 

 prosperity' and that the danger apprehended from the United States 

 of 'aggressive economic interference with other countries' is not so 

 serious as it was generally thought to be in the earlier stages of our 

 expansion. Great as has been the real commercial and industrial suc- 

 cess of the United States during the last two or three years, says the 

 Times, "we are convinced that it is insufficient to warrant the view 

 of its economic results taken either by sanguine Americans or by timid 

 Europeans. The United States are not, as many Americans and some 

 foreigners seem to imagine, exempt from the laws of nature. There 

 are people who are so fascinated by great relative magnitude that they 

 are unable to distinguish between it and infinity. Their judgment 

 becomes, so to speak, polarized by the too intense contemplation of 

 great but variable economic forces, just as a compass needle is dis- 

 turbed by the proximity of a relatively large mass of iron, and their 

 minds become incapable of receiving impressions from evidence that 

 the really permanent economic forces are not dead or even sleeping. 

 Now, there have been several pieces of evidence during the past year 

 that the economic situation in the United States is not altogether so 

 good as it appears to those who merely look at and discuss the surface, 



* ' Review of the World's Commerce for 1900.' 



