THE TRIUMPH OF THE AMERICAN IDEA 205 



because it reflects to the credit of his department. In con- 

 servative England and on the continent, suggestions from 

 employees are looked upon as impertinence, while the fore- 

 man treats those who make them as aspiring rivals for his 

 position — this is the reason given by one of the oldest em- 

 ployees of Pain's fireworks for the fact that every important 

 invention in the improvement of fireworks made in the last 

 decade has been made by English employees in America, 

 and the results tested here and then sent back to the parent 

 company abroad. Sunilar reasons account for the fact that 

 the men transplanted from Belfast and the Clyde are bring- 

 ing American shipping to a place where it will soon threaten 

 the commerce of the world. 



In spite of our advanced methods, however, we still do 

 fear the pauper labor of other countries. When Japan built 

 in her American equipped ship yards, several immense steam- 

 ships to run across the Pacific and lower the freight rates 

 on flour and all other commodities, we had a problem to 

 solve, for in addition to tlie low cost of operating these 

 vessels with coolie labor, every one of them receives a sub- 

 sidy from the government — but quickly enough the Amer- 

 ican idea triumphed. The Great Northern railway at once 

 grappled with the situation, four of the largest steamships 

 ever designed were ordered. Each of these vessels is 26,000 

 tons burden, or nearly twice the carrying capacity of any steam- 

 ship entering New York harbor, and over four times as large 

 as the Japanese boats, so that they can carry freight in such 

 bulk as to make the possibilitj^ of the small boats competing 

 all but hopeless. This is one way our master workmen 

 overcome the differential of the subsidy. To carry freight 

 across the continent for these great leviathans, the same 

 railway is constructing immense steel freight cars of three 

 times the capacity hitherto known. Thus by maintaining 

 steamships and freight cars of several times the carrying 

 capacity of those operated by any other country, the hand- 

 icap of distance is overcome and the way prepared for a 

 further and more thorough application of the American idea 

 at home and abroad. 



