OCR Text |
Show Miscellany 1 1 Steelmakers Outclassed. The confessions of representatives of American sty el manufacturers to the secretary sec-retary of the navy, if true, are not encouraging: en-couraging: to those who hold that at the conclusion of the war the United States will be in a posftlon to command the trade of the world. With millions of dollars to spend for projectiles, the navy department depart-ment finfls that the best bid to be had in tliis country is 50 per cent higher than the proposal of an English firm, ind that the time demanded for delivery is thirty-six thirty-six months, as against sixteen" Except when they are talking politirs or tariff, our steelmakers are inclined to hoast that they fear no competition. In 4 1 1 ie course of an investigation some years ago it whs shown that they could make armor plate cheaper than anybody else for every purchaser except the United States government. Their present attitude atti-tude shows either an unwillingness to deal fairly with their own nation or an incapacity which after fifty years of pampering, pam-pering, is an industrial shame. If there is such a difference in cost and efficiency as these bids reveal, higher tariffs will only make matters worse, for tariffs close foreign markets and lead to the monopolization of our own. The bids from England which Americans say they cannot meet come from a country whose resources are strained by war, where ail prices of commodities are abnormally high, where taxes are almost to the point of confiscation, and where wages have reached a level never before known. Cnless our steelmakers expect to conquer con-quer the tiade of tiie world by making , lower prices abroad than they exact at j home, their pleas in this instance amount to an abandonment of that dream. They are admittedly outclassed at the start. New York World. |