THE TRIUMPH OF THE AMERICAN IDEA 199 



base of Cheops, accidentally to discover and sell them to the 

 Frankish infidel, who is witness to the find, and can therefore 

 have no doubt as to the authenticity of his treasure. 



Turning once more to the serious, however, we find that 

 American inventions have rapidly made our foreign commerce 

 supreme; within three years we have passed all our rivals, 

 until to-day the one great topic of international discussion is 

 the triumph of the American idea. 



But what is the American idea? For while it is proving 

 itself the great moving force of the world to-day, debated 

 upon in every civilized country from pole to pole, no one as 

 yet seems to have given any concise, concrete definition of the 

 term. The most apt illustration to come under my observa- 

 tion was in England. Two manufacturers, a British and an 

 American, stood waiting for a bus and a trolley car respec- 

 tively. The Britisher, who owned one of the largest mechan- 

 ical plants in England, was explaining to his brother manu- 

 facturer from America that he could not understand how 

 in the states they could pay workmen twice the wages he did, 

 and yet undersell him in every market of the world, including 

 that of his native English city. 



''There is the whole story illustrated," quickly replied 

 the American, pointing across the street to a workman who 

 was perched on a stepladder washing the windows of a dwell- 

 ing, while another on the ground held the ladder steady so 

 that his companion would not fall. ''That is the English way, 

 two men to a ladder," said the American, "our workman 

 would use a ladder that would steady itself, and if there were 

 no such article in the market, he would invent it— that is the 

 American idea." 



Labor saving devices, individualism, and an ambition 

 on the part of both master and man to accomplish the most 

 work in the least possible time; these are the American ideas 

 that are disturbing the slow going, leisurely, old world work- 

 men, and causing them to put on a spurt, if only to show that 

 there is still young blood left in the old countries. 



But in England and continental Europe, where consumers 

 have been trained for generations to ask for goods of certain 

 brands, refusing indignantly all substitutes warranted to be 



