ENGLAND'S WORKMAN LEAD

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2177, 24 June 1890, Page 3

ENGLAND'S WORKMAN LEAD

It has heen the fashion of late, says the London ' Christian World,' to talk as if we were being rapidly driven out of the markets of the world by foreign competitors. But Lord Brassey, lecturing at Tynobee Hall, adduced facts

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which tnay well encourage us to take a more hopeful view. He proved that if tested by the amount of manufactured goods exported ,to foreign countries, the British workman showed. ,a conspicuous superiority byer his French competitor. England, said Lord Brassey, was distinctly and magnificently in advance in all articles in the production of which hard physical labor and thorough workmanship were essential, but wheu they came to the comoetition in which taste and design were required, they were behind their French competitors. Turning to Germany, he found tnat wit'a a far larger population within its Customs Union it was still immensely inferior to this country in the total of manufactured goods exported. Moreover, nearly all the exports from Germany to us consisted of raw material and food products, whilst our exports to Germany were chiefly highly manufactured goods One of the most important items, too, in the G-ermau exports was sugar, which would be manufactured here but for the heavy subsidy granted to German manufacturers. Belgium, with a population of 6,000,000, had an export trade of 49 millions, which was relatively larger than ours, but most of that trade was in raw materials, such as grain, hides, resin, and tallow. In the shipping industry this country was pre-eminent. If the enormous subsidies pail by France and Germany to create and foster an artificial fleet of steam ships were withdrawn, the steam shipping of the world would be wholly British. The difference between British and foreign labor could be further estimated by comparing the output of irou ore per employe in different countries. In Germany the average output was 283 tons, in France, 393, in Belgium 127, in Spain 292, in Algeria 323, and in the Cleveland district of England alone 923 tons. Yet Cleveland bad by no means the mosfc easily worked deposits. In conclusion, Lord Brassey said that the Englishman stood supreme for industry, for thoroughness about bis work, for courage, and for independence of character. Englishmen were the best engine-drivers, the best miners, the best spinners, and the best weavers in the world ; ani were it not for a mere question of taste and design they were the best metal workers, as they were the best seamen in the world. The organisation of labor by means of Trades Unions was, ( he believed, to the mutual advantage of both employer aod employed.