Review of Rerieus, l/il/06. 



Leading Articles. 



489 



WAKK UP, UNCLE SAM ! 



John Bull has been so urged to '■ wake up," and 

 has had the American workman and producer held 

 up liefore him as bright and shining examples so 

 long, that Dr. Louis Bell's article, in the September 

 Engineering Magazine, " Do American Manufactur- 

 ing Methods Imperil Her Trade?" may come as a 

 surprise to some Englishmen. Dr. Bell refers to 

 the wonderful growth of American manufactures, 

 due largely to the immense resourcefulness of the 

 American spirit, and says that it seems almost un- 

 grateful to suggest even the remote possibility of 

 disaster. - The foreign peril lies not in foreign 

 acuteness, but in the painstaking avoidance of our 

 mistakes. Our real danger is not from without, but 

 from wdthin — the danger that comes from over- 

 haste and lack of thoroughness." 



These things are just as characteristic of American in- 

 duBtry aa lis the marvellous alertness that has been its 

 motive power. In the mechanical arts, tor instance, Am- 

 erican methods and workmen produce average results of 

 remarkable excellence; but it one wants a bit of work 

 done with the utmost thoroughness and precision, nineteen 

 times out of twenty be will flml that the workman who 

 has finished it is a German or Swede or Englishman— if 

 indeed he is able to get it done at all. As every thought- 

 ful manufactarer fully realises, there is a dearth of skilled 

 l.%bour, and native American skilled labour is the rarest 

 kind. As a result the finest artisans in many lines of work 

 ■ are not Iw found in this country, and the goods which they 

 produce are imported. 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. 



The primal intent of this system is to produce at 

 the lowest possible cost the largest possible quan- 

 tity of marketable goods. The result is to reduce 

 manufacture to operations by automatic machinery, 

 using human labour only where it cannot be 

 avoided, and constituting a manufacturing plant as 

 a species of enormously complicated machine tool, 

 of which the artisans are merely belts, wheels and 

 oil-cans. In consequence the average quality of 

 American manufacture is high, and up to the point 

 where machines need to be supplemented by a high 

 degree of intelligi'nt skill the American method 

 works magnificentlv : — 



At this point it becomes self-destructive, and all along 

 the line it suffers more or less from too close adherence to 

 the princiiile of averages upon which it is fotmded. There 

 is a constant tendency toward the production of types 

 modified so as slightly to cliea)>en const.ruction, even at a 

 considernhie s icrifice of convenience; or. more serious still, 

 manufacture is cheapened bv designs which make repairs 

 and renewals extremely troublesome, on the principle that 

 it is better to scrap the article and buy a new one than to 

 pay a little more for one that can be properly repaired. 

 In similar fasliion the high-pressure piece work results in 

 turning out articles just capable of passing hurried inspec- 

 tion, and n^> more- 



WHERE THK FOHEIGNEK EXCELS. 



The result of the method is to make high-grade 

 work relatively expensive : - 



As an example take the medium-priced American hanil- 

 CEumera. It is a man-vei of adroit adaptation to the needs 

 of the average purchaser, and a renlly rronderful product 

 tor the money, hut if one attempts to purchase apparatus 

 of the highest grade it is rather cheajjer to im]>ort than to 

 buy in America, let alone the fact that most of the finest 

 lenses are imported anyhow. The same condition holds for 

 many other lines of manufacture. Indeed, certain classes 

 of goods are practically unknown in American trade, and 

 it sometimes happens tnat goods which would hardly pass 

 inspection abroad are unloaded here as quite good enough 



for a people that is content with the cheap and tolerable. 



On the other hand, in very cheap goods— far below th» 

 average standard American plane— the foreigner some- 

 times beats us at our own game. I'lie cheap rielgian gun, 

 tor instance, comes to this country, duty paid, at a pric« 

 that staggers native production. The European is learning 

 American methods, and with the advantage of cheap 

 labour it is only a question of time before he can bring 

 standard workmanship up to the American plane. 

 THE BANE OF A HUGE OUTPUT. 

 A huge output is evidently a fetich too much 

 worshipped across the pond. It has tended to- 

 wards carelessness, with the result that channels for 

 competition are opened never to be closed, and this 

 in spite of a huge protective tariff. For instance, 

 forgings are imported from Germany for many 

 motor works, experience having shown that the 

 foreign product has a uniformity in properties most 

 difficult to secure in America, that the parts are 

 forged so closely to gauge that the saving in labour 

 is enough practically to counterbalance the duty. 

 Another drawback to the rigid standardisation of 

 type is that American standards do not suit foreign 

 markets : — ■ 



.\t the v'resenl moment most American industries ore 

 behind their orders and do not worry about additional 

 sales abroad; but some day in the not distant future these 

 markets will he badly needed and can he won only at 

 heavy cost, if at all. The trouble here, too, is not only 

 with the products, but with the absolute indifference to 

 commercial requirements. The whole tendency of oiir 

 modern industrial machine is towards inflexibility, and this 

 extends to the methods of distribution as well. Foreign 

 red-tape makes requirements which seem often nnreason- 

 .able, but foreign business goes to the exporter who respects 

 them. The American is too apt to treat them with lofty 

 contempt, and suffers accordingly. Painstaking courtesy 

 in meeting the possibly peculiar requirements of a foreign 

 customer is a lesson that many American firms need sadly 

 to learn. Every consignee won over by polite consideration 

 is a self-.appointed advertising agent whose servicea are 

 extremely valuable. 



The American has. however, no monopoly in this 



loftv contempt, unfortunately. 



WAGES AND WOEK. 



The American workman is better paid than his 

 foreign competitor, but 



instability of employment, common in all lines and a re- 

 cognised feature in many, goes far to compensate for the 

 noniinallv greater wages of the American. The consequent 

 feeling of insecurity is a demoralising influence, the 

 seriousness of which it is hard to overestimate. 



LACK OF SKIId/ED WORKERS, 



I.)r. Bell concludes: — 



It is erapha,tically true that in very many lines of in- 

 dustry ill our country active improvement has been checked 

 in the interest of proflt^taking. In the long run the eflfect 

 of this is bound to be disastrous to American progress. 

 There are signs even now of foreign competition based on 

 an active campaign of improvements. In not a few of the 

 engineering trades we are in this country copying Euro- 

 pean products instead of compelling them to copy ours, as 

 of yore, lieanwhile the axerage ciuality of American 

 labour is running down, owing to the practical abolition 

 of iiitesral trades, and it will he progressively harder to 

 obtain the skill needful as the basis of improvement. Every 

 great works feels the scarcity of skilled craftsmen, and 

 the worst of the matter is that such have small incentive 

 to existence in the face of the uncertainty of employment 

 due to the general labour difficulties. When t\ie rank and 

 file of the workers strike, or the works are shut down on 

 account of the latest merger, lumpers and skilled me- 

 chanics alike are idle. 



Tliere is a constant feeling of unrest among workmen 

 under American conditions. They know that they are 

 merely parts of a machine which stops and starts, accele- 

 rates and slows down, from causes absolutely beyond their 

 control, and that each year they must take the chances 

 of being displaced by cheaper men if such can be found 

 available for ailing the oil-cups. 



