1005.] oti American Industnj. 95 



Mr. Moselj next referred at some length to the American system 

 of education, and the beneficial effect that it was, in his opinion, 

 exerting on trade and industry in the United States and on all ques- 

 tions affecting the uplifting of the masses. In that country he found 

 an intense belief in education, from the highest to the lowest. 

 Children remained longe)* at school than here — parents willingly 

 making the sacrifice — and a tliirst for knowledge was shown by the 

 scholar that had no counterpart in this country. The child first 

 passed through the American public school, thence to the college — 

 equivalent to our primary and secondary schools respectively — and if 

 he desired it, he could afterwards pass to the University, practically 

 free of cost. With such opportunities for the masses it was little wonder 

 that amongst those eighty millions of educated people there should be 

 ample l)raius develo[)ed and available, and the result was shown in 

 the unmistakeable leaps and bounds by which the country was ad- 

 vancing. The. lecturer also thought the political situation in the 

 States should teach us a lesson, inasmuch as upon all national ques- 

 tions affecting the people's welfare, the electors to a large extent spoke 

 with one voice, putting mere party politics aside. The striking 

 majority by which President Eoosevelt was returned was a proof of 

 this trait, and by subsequent events that judgment had been fully 

 justified. 



One of the main questions placed before the trade union dele- 

 gates was : " How is it that America can afford to pay the workmen 

 half-a-dollar (and often more) in wages, w^here we pay but a shilling, 

 and yet compete with ns in the markets of the world ? " Mr. Mosely 

 went on to sketch how, in American workshops, everything is sys- 

 tematised, standardised and specialised ; how labour-saving machinery 

 predominates ; how employers welcome large earnings on the part of 

 their workmen by means of piecework, rather than trying to fix a 

 standard maximum wage for skilled labour, and then cutting down 

 prices if that maximum be exceeded. 



The lecturer enlarged upon the many drawbacks of the British 

 system, under which manufacturers do not sufficiently speciahse ; 

 new methods and ideas are so often opposed by the workpeople, and 

 the employer has to struggle under the burden of heavy taxes, heavy 

 rating of machinery, and a market always open to attack by the 

 dumping here of surplus products from every other country in the 

 world. He laid down that the time had come for a thorough investi- 

 gation into the industrial position, as the problems present themselves 

 to-day, and begged that all concerned would view these important 

 problems entirely apart from politics, and solely on their own merits. 



A series of interesting lantern slides were then exhibited, illus- 

 trating the trip taken by the Mosely commissioners through the 

 United States, where they visited the principal industrial centres, 

 such as New York, Albany, Schenectady, Niagara, Buffalo, Cleveland, 

 Chicago, Dayton, Pittsbm'g, Washington, Philadelphia, etc. Many 



