62 THE DECENTRALISATION 



the organisation of that industry is also superior, 

 as Mr. Berkley pointed out, already in 1891, 

 in his address to the Institute of Civil Engineers.* 

 But all this has grown almost entirely within 

 the last thirty or forty years whole industries 

 having been created entirely since 1860.f What 

 will, then, American industry be twenty years 

 hence, aided as it is by a wonderful development 

 of technical skill, by excellent schools, a scientific 

 education which goes hand in hand with technical 

 education, and a spirit of enterprise which is 

 unrivalled in Europe ? 



Volumes have been written about the crisis of 

 1886-1887, a crisis which, to use the words of 

 the Parliamentary Commission, lasted since 1875, 

 with but " a short period of prosperity enjoyed 

 by certain branches of trade in the years 1880 

 to 1883," and a crisis, I shall add, which ex- 

 tended over all the chief manufacturing countries 

 of the world. All possible causes of the crisis 

 have been examined ; but, whatever the caco- 



" The largest output of one blast-furnace In Great Britain 

 does not exceed 750 tons in the week, while in America it had 

 reached 2000 tons " (Nature, 19th Nov., 1891, p. 65). In 1909 

 the Bessemer steel plants had 99 converters ; total daily capa- 

 city of ingots or direct castings, double turn, in 1909, 45,983 

 tons. 



t J. B. Dodge, Farm and Factory : Aids to Agriculture from 

 other Industries, New York and London, 1884, p. 111. I can but 

 highly recommend this little work to those interested in the 

 question. 



