2 g6 JOHN FOSTER FRASER 



turer has invaded the British market, and while the sale of 

 British boots has decreased in our colonies, that of American 

 boots has increased. This is not because the American boot 

 wears better than the British. It does not. A finely made 

 British boot is the best in the world. But in the average 

 boot, the boot which the average person wears, which he buys 

 ready made in a shop at from 12s. 6d. to 25s. a pair, the 

 American article is more popular. It looks neater; there are 

 so many different widths and half sizes that it fits at the start; 

 you have not to be satisfied with it being "all right in a few 

 days, sir." The British boot manufacturers tried to laugh 

 American competition out of existence. Then they took to 

 American methods, and to-day all the largest British boot 

 manufactories are fitted with American machinery. Indeed, 

 all the most ingenious devices in the manufacture of a shoe 

 came from the other side of the Atlantic. It is not enough 

 to tell the public the British shoe wears longer than the Ameri- 

 can. We don't buy our boots and shoes to wear to the last 

 eighth of an inch. We buy them to fit us and serve us for 

 a time, wanting them to look neat and not be heavy and 

 clumsy. There the American showed the way. 



Take railway locomotives. Several of our big lines have 

 tried American built engines. Generally speaking, they have 

 been pronounced a failure; they consume more coal than 

 English engines, and they spend too much of their time in 

 the repairing sheds. But there are several things to be borne 

 in mind. The American builds a locomotive to last ten years. 

 The British maker takes pride in pointing out engines in this 

 country that have run forty years. The American engine is 

 built to drag immense loads. It has an enormous haulage 

 power; it consequently consumes much coal. In England 

 or the States it uses the same amount of fuel. But whilst in 

 the States it has a giant's work to do in haulage, in England 

 it has only an infant's work by comparison. "Put the same 

 weight behind our engine in England," says the American 

 maker, "as we do in America, and then you will find while 

 it consumes more coal it earns more money by the increased 

 haulage capacity." 



