AMERICAN PRIMACY IN IRON AND STEEL iig 



enduring basis of international peace. Each has yet to learn 

 more fully what the characteristic features of strength are in 

 the position of its rivals in the world's iron and steel trade. 

 The restless demand for improved methods and machinos, 

 which intelligent workmen have readily applied to this indus- 

 try, has put America wliere she is — tlie foremost producer of 

 iron and steel. The technological training of men and masters 

 in ironworking processes has enabled Germany to rise as the 

 worthy competitor of both Great Britain and the United 

 States. No otiier single feature of German development has 

 done so much to bring her trade to the front rank of excellence 

 and value. The position of Great Britain is what it is to-day 

 and what it was in the past because of her commercial genius. 

 Prolonged leadership in trade has, however, made her lax and 

 caused her to lose the art of quick adaptation to changed con- 

 ditions of competition. In the lessons which each of these 

 powers is seeking to learn from the others, these three char- 

 acteristic factors contain the secrets of the century's progress 

 in the iron and steel trade — the invention of machinery and 

 methods, the education of the w^orker, and the cultivation of 

 the consumer. Permanent peace and prosperity lie along 

 these paths. 



