NATIONAL IDEALS IN IRON TRADE 

 DEVELOPMENT. 



BY H. J. SKELTON. 



[H. J. Skolton, economist; has written several articles for the Engineering Magazine 

 that are remarkable for their appreciation and expression of the deep lying relations 

 of engineering work with the nation's political and social order. He has developed 

 the theory that the sources of national tendency in constructive or productive enter- 

 prise are to be found side by side with those of national character in well-rooted ideals 

 of law, education and custom. The following article is published by permission of the 

 Engineering Magazine.] 



In the early seventies, when I was a youth in the drawing 

 office of a large steel and iron works in Sheffield, the idea prev- 

 alent amongst young men in steel or engineering works, or 

 such of them as had ambition or a consciousness of ability 

 beyond the average, was that if there were not sufficient oppor- 

 tunity of fairly rapid and well remunerated advancement at 

 home there was at least an opportunity outside old England 

 in the great republic of the west. From time to time one 

 heard of migration of eager, spirited men to the United States 

 of America, where there seemed to be openings with an ample 

 scope for mental and physical activity for all who cared to 

 venture. It is somewhat piquant to reflect that much of the 

 remarkable development that has taken place in American 

 iron and steel industries may be due to the brains of those 

 young men who could not find sufficiently good scope to satisfy 

 their ideas, or sufficiently good pay to satisfy their ambitions, 

 in Great Britain. 



There are not a few people who think that the develop- 

 ment of American iron and steel industries will not only shake 

 the supremacy of Great Britain at home and in the markets of 

 the world, but will change the entire European situation. 

 This involves an enquiry as to whether Great Britain has lost 

 ground, and if so, some enquiry why she has done so, and a 

 consideration of the probable consequences of the new com- 

 petition. 



There is little doubt that Great Britain has lost ground. 

 The progress and development of a nation depend in some 



120 



