December 7, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
21 
countries — and es])ccially England — displayed in manu- 
I'acturing fur ex])ort in the fare of the nnprercdonted 
demands made upon their industrial energy at home.. 
(In a former issue of Land & Watkk I called atten- 
tion to the remarkable fact that Great Britain supplied 
a larger percentage of Argentina's needs in 1915 than for 
the year immediately preceding the war). 
In spite of the fact, therefore, that Europe has had a 
war on its hands American gains in practically all non- 
European markets have been almost negligible, and where 
such gains have been made, they have been far out- 
balanced by the increased exports of those countries 
to the United States. Exports from America to 
Oceana, for instance, increased only 5,700,000 dollars for 
the fiscal year 1916, while the imports from^Oceana in- 
creased over 32,000,000 dollars. Exports to North 
Africa increased but 7,000,000 dollars, while imports from 
that region increased nearly 30,000,000 dollars. The 
same was true of trade with Japan and the British East 
Indies. China sold America three times as much as she 
bought there, and the ^■alue of the imports from Cuba 
2xceeded the exports by over 100,000,000 dollars. 
Whether or not the United States would have done 
better to have concentrated upon the building up trade 
in neutral markets a large part of the energy she ex- 
pended, and is expending, upon making munitions for 
a group of belligerents will probably be a moot question 
for many years. The fact remains that, due almost 
solely to the deflection of s6 much effort to munition 
making, she will find herself at the end of the war in only 
a very slightly stronger position in any of the markets 
of the world than she was at the beginning. The 
only important geographical division of the world 
in which the United States is in a distinctly stronger 
position as a consequence of the war is South America, 
where, as a consequence of a steady extension of loans, 
investments and — ultimately — an improvement of trans- 
portation facilities, she will undoubtedly be able to sell 
more of her goods in the future than in the past. 
In'eintl Development 
Just how much of the remarkable slump in the in- 
ternal development of America is due to the depression 
prevaiHng immediately before the war, and how much 
to the deflection of capital and labour to munition- 
making, cannot be definitely determined, but there is 
no question that the latter factor was by far the more 
important of the two. Both railway and building con- 
struction has been slacker than for many years. Indeed, 
the mileage of new railways built in the United States 
during IQ 15 was less than for any year since 1868. There 
have only been three years since 1848 when there was 
less railway line constructed than during 19 15. The 
slump in railway construction extended also to that of 
rolling stock. The goods vans built in 1915 were fewer 
than for any year since 1904, and the number of 
passenger coaches the smallest since 1900. As for loco- 
motives, not since the early 90's have so few new ones 
been added to the existing stock. 
In discussing the munitions industry of America one 
cannot help endeavouring to draw comparisons between 
the great new plants that have been rushed to completion 
there and those which have been hurried through under 
similar conditions in England and France. On the score 
of equipment there is no point in comparison, for practic- 
ally all of the new plants of the Allies arc served by 
American machinery throughout. As for design utility, 
not beauty I mean — it seemed to me that two or three of 
the latest of the American plants were better planned on 
the score of labour-saving than anything I had seen in 
Europe, though certain new British works which I have 
visited and a rapidly expanding French shrapnel factory 
are very much up-to-date on that score. As . for 
speed in construction, the advantage is, of course, 
with America, for one reason, because, there being no war 
there, it was much easier to assemble materials and labour 
and, for another reason, because steel-frame construction 
— which enters so largely into munition-works — has 
been specialised on longer there, and on^ a far greater 
scale, than anywhere else in the world. 
It is not likely that anyone great munition works pro- 
ject that has been carried out in any of the belligerent 
, countries of Europe has equalled the construction record 
of the luigo new j-)]ant of the Remington Arms Company 
atBridge])ort, Conutcticut. Here, where in April, 1915, 
was a half-drained swamp, there were reared by (Jctober 
of the same j'ear — less than six months later — thirty- 
eight five story stcel-and-brick buildings, each 272 feet 
by 60 feet on the ground. These thirty-eight buildings 
were connected around a quadrangle by an equal num- 
ber of what are called " service buildings," each having 
a ground dimension of 48 by 60 feet and fhc stories 
in height, the whole really forming one gigantic building' 
with over a hundred acres of floor space. 
A Great Rifle Factory 
This great plant was designed solely for the manu- 
facture of military rifles and certain munitions, and its 
construction was determined upon before a single con- 
tract had been signed with any of the European belliger- 
ents. When I visited it in January of this year it was 
employing 36,000 hands, who were turning out rifles at 
a rate — over 10,000 a day — that will bring the 
annual output up to a figure considerably in excess 
of 100,000,000 dollars in value. The works were policed 
by 300 honourably discharged soldiers of the United 
States army, formed into companies and officered as a 
regular military organization. 
UAhke most of the mushroon munition works of 
America, the Remington plant is intended to remain 
such permanently, and was not constructed with the 
idea of conversion after the war. Just what sort of a 
" peace market " there is expected to be for upward.^ 
of three and a half million rifles a year I was not told, but 
as small arms are now being turned out here as cheaply 
as in Europe, it is probable that the Remington works 
will be an active bidder whenever military tenders are 
called for in all parts of the world. In any event Americans 
who have been in a position to realise the perilous position 
of their country if confronted by a sudden war, will 
at least breathe easier in the knowledge that the great 
struggle in Europe will have left them a legacy of one 
arms factory with a capacity of several times that of all 
the Government arsenals combined. 
Most of the " big money " in the war work was made 
by those American manufacturers who got to work 
early and secured contracts permitting them wide 
margins of profits at a time when the Allies were com- 
peting with each other for any and every kind of military 
supplies. Whether the plants built later for turning 
out munitions will justify the venture will depend partly 
upon the duration of the war, and partly upon the cost 
of putting them back on a " peace work " basis. Charles 
M. Schwab, head of the American Steel Co., and the best 
informed man in the country on the subject, took an 
optimistic view in a recent interview. He said : 
The war is the basis of our present prosperity, but it 
is a mistake to imagine that the greater portion of our 
business is war order business, or that the war has called 
for manutacturing that is far outside of our peace-time 
trade. Popular opinion inclines to the view that at the 
end of the war we will have on hand many factories 
and mucli machinery fit only for making shells, rifles and 
the like. This is a belief fostered by the peace cranks, 
who hope to make out that war is fomented by manu- 
facturers to keep machinery busy. It is a fact, Jiowever, 
that the bulk of our war export is drawn from the ordinary 
course of business. It is also a fact that at present prices, 
domestic orders are as profitable as foreign munitions 
business. Peace will affect only future not present orders. 
It will not, therefore, bring any sudden change, aiid there 
will be ample opportunity to transform gradually the 
most of the purely munition plants into ordinary machine 
factories. PIvery conservatively managed plant has 
already, charged off all the extensions including ma- 
chinery and buildings — which cannot be instantly turned 
to normal peace work. 
A very useful aid to the study of the war is embodied in 
Nelson's Map Book of the War (is. 6d. net), in wliich are given 
no less than fifty pagf| of maps of the various fronts, showing 
all the salient features of each theatre if action, together with 
a diary of the war from the beginning to the end of September, 
1916. The maps arc drawn with a view to the military 
situations, and give in detail the features of the country and 
the political divisions of all the main and subsidiary fronts. 
Matter and its arrangement are alike well selected, and the 
editors may be congratulated on this admirable reference map. 
