CAUSES OF THE SUCCESS OF AHERICAN 

 riANUFACTURERS. 



BY JOHN FOSTER FRASER. 



[John Foster Fraser, economist, is one of the most popular of British writers on indus- 

 trial and economic topics. He has made first hand investigations of the industrial 

 situation in the United States and in European countries and the results of such in- 

 vestigations have been embodied in newspaper and magazine articles and in lectures. 

 Their popularity and value have been heightened by his bringing to his investiga- 

 tions not only the sound judgment of the scholar, but the experience of the business 

 man.] 



Some time ago I held conversation with a Spanish gentle- 

 man who had been making a tour of England. "Yes," he 

 said, in reply to an inviting question of mine, "I have seen 

 many things that have filled me with wonder: the rush of 

 business in London, the magnificence of your buildings, the 

 keenness in trade. I have seen your great steelworks in 

 Sheffield, your busy black country about Birmingham, your 

 shipbuilding yards on the Clyde side, and your great cotton 

 factories in Lancashire. It is all marvellous. But I wouldn't 

 like to be an Englishman. I am glad to be going back to my 

 own sunny Spain. We're a poor people, but we get some 

 brightness out of life. We've got no great commerce to be 

 proud of ; but then we've got no country bleached of all beauty, 

 as I've seen in your black country; we've got no crowds of 

 young men and women in consumption from working in mills, 

 as in Yorkshire and Lancashire. You're a great people, a 

 mighty industrial nation. But what a price you are paying 

 for it! I'm going back to my orange trees and sunshine and 

 happiness." 



At the time I thought little of my friend's outburst. 

 Recently I have been recalling it every day. For I have 

 returned from a mission of inquiry into industrial conditions 

 prevailing in the United States. I have been coming in con- 

 tact with many British manufacturers, and the reply they 

 have invariably given, when I have pictured to them the 

 dash, the sweeping success of industrial America, has been, 

 "Oh, yes, the Americans are a great people, But we in 



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