Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/638

630 which relates to processes of manufacture and the utilization of labor, has been drifting instinctively towards the larger question of the concentration of capital as the logical development of the same general idea of reducing cost and increasing the margin of profit. The question is larger because it has a more direct and more general bearing upon the economic and social life of the nation, upon the interests, real or imagined, of the whole body politic. We have to do with it here only because of its relation to and possible effect upon our foreign trade, and it is interesting to know that so thoughtful an observer as Lord Rosebery perceives in the simplification of the use of capital in the United States which is going on—it may be said experimentally, to a large extent as yet—a tremendous power in the commercial rivalry of the world.

Germany, as well as Great Britain, seems fully sensible of the seriousness of American competition. In a recent issue, the Hamburger 'Fremdenblatt' points out that the United States, which ten years ago exported more than 80 per cent, of agricultural products and less than a fifth of manufactured goods, to-day draws nearly a third of its entire exports from the products of its factories. "In other words, the Union is marching with gigantic strides towards conversion from an agricultural to an industrial nation." "Does not the rapid increase of the United States in the value of industrial exports," the 'Fremdenblatt' asks, "constitute an imminent danger from all competing nations?" Continuing, the 'Fremdenblatt' says:

If we now turn to an investigation of all the elements which have produced this tremendous, this almost incredible, revolution in the world's situation, it is impossible within our present limits to consider all the factors which are of importance to German interests as well as essential to a comprehensive conclusion. Competent experts, well informed as to the industrial and export conditions which prevail in the United States, have established the following facts:

The steel manufactories of the United States, which two decades ago were in their infancy, to-day control the markets of the world, dictate either directly or indirectly the prices of iron and steel in all countries, and partly through the richness of their supply of iron ores and coal, partly by the use of laborsaving machinery and skilful, effective means of transportation, have attained a position to not only compete with the older iron and steel-producing countries, but even to profitably export their products to England.

American tools, especially hatchets, axes, files, saws, boring implements, etc., enjoy, by reason of their excellent quality, the best reputation, and, in spite of their higher price, stand above competition in nearly the whole world. Also in sewing machines, bicycles and agricultural implements of every kind, the United States has begun to drive England and Germany from the world's