AMERICAN PRIMACY IN IRON AND STEEL 117 



business, and no far sccinp; mannpjomont of an industry so 

 hiji;hly or<2;anizod and so admirably o(|uip])(Ml a.s this ono is 

 with men of conunercial and financial abilil\', would fold its 

 opportunity away in the napkin only when it could not help 

 itself. (2) If this policy is a thinjij of the i)ast , then we may 

 adopt the plan of developing the home market by lowering 

 prices and by seeking new avenues of consumption in the 

 domestic demand, by the substitution of iron and steel for 

 wood and other materials, as has l^een done with marked suc- 

 cess in steel car manufacture and in the construction of bridges, 

 office buildings, machinery, implements, tools, etc. — all of 

 which are in increasing demand with the brojidening basis of 

 the internal development of our national life. But here, 

 again, the rate of this expansion of internal demand is far l)e- 

 low the rate at which the volume of iron and steel production 

 increases on the present scale of organization. (3) Conse- 

 quently, there is left for us only one other policy — that of 

 cultivating the world market against all competitors, sys- 

 tematically and without stint. With the capital, the me- 

 chanical and business capacity, and the vast natural resources 

 at its command, under its existing organization the American 

 iron and steel industry has no alternative between vegetating 

 in fatness at home and fearlessly meeting its rivals in the world 

 market. 



The entrance of the United States upon such a career of 

 commercial aggression would not, however, be without its 

 risks and draw^backs. Four consequences seem to be equally 

 probable as the result of this change in the relation of this 

 country to the world market: 



1 . The steady but certain advance of European tariffs all 

 along the line against the United States. A European concert 

 is politically impossible, but individually it is inevitable, as a 

 means of self preservation. France and Russia represent the 

 type of economic policy that our own expansion is bound to 

 provoke into greater or less permanency, especially on the 

 continent. 



2. The formation of an imperial customs union on the 

 part of Great Britain and her colonies, as Canada proposed, 

 on the basis of freedom of trade within this fiscal group, but 



