534 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



whether from habit or because they have reasons for not wishing the 

 public to look any deeper." In support of its assertions, the Times 

 endeavors to show that the continued expansion of traffic receipts of 

 American railroads loses much of its apparent significance when the 

 fact is considered that it is not a new thing, but 'had been going on for 

 a long time before the end of 1900'; that the sanguine prediction that, 

 in a very few years, New York would be the monetary center of the 

 world, based upon the theory that the United States was becoming a 

 creditor instead of a debtor nation and was lending money to Europe 

 instead of borrowing, is not being realized; that 'America has gone, 

 for the time being, quite as far in the direction of employing her 

 resources and credit as is safe, and possibly a little farther'; and that 

 "the American public has never recovered from the fright it got in 

 May last, in spite of every endeavor on the part of the leaders of the 

 business world to allay the apprehension created by the panic, and to 

 encourage a belief in the strength of the bond which 'community of 

 interest' was supposed to have established among the able and ambi- 

 tious men who govern the great business corporations of the United 

 States." 



Our Industrial Efficiency Undiminished. 

 Whatever be the force of these conclusions, they do not necessarily 

 detract from the efficiency of the United States as a competitive force 

 in the world's markets, for they do not in any way affect the advan- 

 tages peculiar to us as an industrial nation, and if they did, they would 

 be offset by drawbacks such as insufficient supplies of raw material and 

 fuel under which the other manufacturing countries must, in the very 

 nature of things, continue to labor. Moreover, it will probably be a 

 long time before the conservative, slow-moving industrial forces of 

 Europe will adapt themselves to the novel requirements which Ameri- 

 can ingenuity and enterprise have created. Both labor and capital in 

 Europe would seem to have a long and difficult task ahead of them 

 before they shall have approximated to the economics of production 

 which we have mastered. 



Alleged Obstruction hy British Labor. 

 The labor conditions in Great Britain especially appear to be such 

 as to seriously embarrass progress there and to give us a broader mar- 

 gin of opportunity in more quickly and more economically meeting 

 the demands of foreign consumers. In a series of articles entitled 

 'The Crisis in British Industry,' a writer in the London Times asserts 

 that the English trades-unions have so hedged about the productive 

 forces of the Kingdom as to greatly diminish output and delay the 

 execution of work. "Thirty years ago, our correspondent states, 

 and we believe accurately," says the Times editorially, "a bricklayer 



