274 W. C. DODGE 



recently stated, by the adoption of the latest inventions they 

 were able to produce a ton of steel with one third of the 

 manual labor that was required at another works built twenty 

 years before. 



In 1824 a member on the floor of congress contended that 

 America could never compete with Europe in the production 

 of iron, because of the cheaper European labor. Little he 

 knew the power of invention, backed by American enterprise 

 and energy; for, by its aid, America in a single year not only 

 supplied her own needs, but sent pig iron, rails, locomotives, 

 bridges, machinery, and tools of all kinds, not only to Europe, 

 but to Asia and Africa, to the amount of over $105,000,000; 

 and, while doing that, paid her operatives nearly double the 

 wages paid in Europe. Only recently a vessel left Phila- 

 delphia for a European port, carrying a cargo worth nearly 

 half a million dollars, in which were thirty locomotives and 

 tenders, with other machinery and tools. 



Again, take the tin plate industry. Up to 1890 America 

 produced but one per cent of the tin plate that she used. In 

 1891 there were imported nearly thirty six million dollars' 

 worth, but since then that industry has so grown that the im- 

 port is reduced to less than $4,000,000, and that is mainly used 

 for the shipment abroad of oil and other canned goods, and 

 on which tin a drawback is allowed. Not only does America 

 now supply herself, but the export of tin plate has commenced, 

 and is growing. 



While it is, no doubt, true, as claimed, that the establish- 

 ment of the industry was due to the protection afforded by 

 the tariff of 1890, its unexampled growth and prosperity are 

 largely due to invention. It has been claimed that there have 

 been more improvements in the manufacture of tin plate in 

 the United States in eight years than there have been in Wales 

 in two hundred years ; and these improvements consist mainly 

 in the use of labor saving machines and tools patented by 

 American inventors. 



A very remarkable fact in connection with this is that 

 while the hours of labor have been reduced 25 per cent, the 

 product i^er hand has increased 40 per cent, and the wages 

 48 per cent; or, if measured by the purchasing power of a 



