American competition.
At the present time, the United States, not content with their natural advantages, impose an almost prohibitory tariff on our exportations. There is a party in America opposed to protection, but hitherto the superior organisation and greater determination of the manufacturers interested in the maintenance of the tariffs has overpowered all opposition. At the last annual meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers at Philadelphia, the Honourable D. Kelley, who delivered the opening address, asserted that, by its dereliction of duty in not protecting the labourer of Great Britain against competition, the Government of this country have fostered anarchy in Ireland, while the life of the labourer in England and Scotland has been robbed of all its joys. ‘The millions of sturdy men,’ he declared, ‘represented by Bradlaugh, Odger, Joseph Arch, and the travelled and humane patrician, Sir Charles Dilke, know that the world owes every man a living, and that it is only by protection that the means of living can be secured to the people.’ So long as such a feeling prevails, there is little hope of our ironmasters obtaining free access to America.
The progress of the American iron works is the more creditable, because great difficulties are experienced in obtaining a sufficient supply of labour. Men come over from England, having had their expenses paid, on condition of taking an engagement for a period of five years. As soon as their bargain is performed, they generally find it impossible to resist the attractions of an independent farm in the Far West. Their places must be supplied by other workmen, obtained by the same costly means from the mother country. The difficulty of obtaining skilled workmen has had a great effect in America in stimulating the invention of labour-saving machinery; and as scientific manufacturers, the American ironmasters can doubtless hold their own against the world. In finished iron the Americans have been highly successful. Bridge-work, locomotives, wheels and tires, and machinery, are produced at prices, which may compare not unfavourably with our own. As an illustration of American ingenuity and enterprise, which came under my immediate notice, on the occasion of a recent visit to the States, I may point to the Peabody Rifle Company’s establishment at Providence, Rhode Island. During the Rebellion the Company was fully employed in the manufacture of small arms. The cessation of the struggle put an end to the demand for rifles; but, with the fertility of resource which distinguishes American industry, the manual skill of a large body of workmen especially apt in the production of tools or machinery, composed of numerous small and interchangeable parts, and the valuable and ingenious plant belonging to the Company, are now employed in the production of sewing machines. Three hundred machines are turned out every day, and the sale is constantly increasing. The wages of the 500 operatives employed are most liberal. The monthly pay-sheet amounts to 25,000 dollars, giving an average of 40s. a week throughout the factory. The leading workmen, five or six in number, to whom the work is let by the piece, or rather by sub-contract, earn nearly £600 a year. The superior mechanics earn 12s. to 14s.; labourers 4s. to 6s. a day. The supply of highly-skilled labour is limited, but ordinary mechanics can always be obtained. On an average, one skilled mechanic a day makes application for employment.
The success of the Peabody Company affords significant evidence that the cost of production is not augmented in equal proportion to the high rates of pay. At the time of my visit, they were negotiating a contract for the supply of 100,000 rifles to the Roumanian Government, at the rate of 63s. per rifle; and they had to compete for the contract against all the makers of Birmingham and Liège. This Company had also in prospect an order for 200,000 rifles, from the Turkish Government. The success, with which the Americans have reduced the cost of production by the invention of machinery, gives us ground for caution, lest our old supremacy be shaken by the energy and talent of the New World; while it also gives us reason to hope that the effects of the exceptionally high rates of wages now prevailing may be mitigated by substituting, wherever it is possible, mechanical for manual labour.