The Wanganui Chronicle "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1903. "AMERICA AT WORK."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11969, 11 June 1903, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1903. "AMERICA AT WORK."

"Amebica at^Work" is the title of a book by Mr J. Foster Fraser, and in it the writer has pictured "the fever of industry" as it prevails in the great Republic. Indeed, as one review©: 1 describes it, it is "a book tliat is almost uncanny in its realistic presentment of how life is lived and business done in the America of to-day." The book literally makes one feel that he is in the midst of the marvellous motion and unceasing activity which the writer so vividly depicts. "A reader turning these -pages," says the same reviewer from whose criticism we have quoted, "can almost feel his head swirl at the feverish yet ordered speed at which he is hurried on, at the dim and clash of machinery, the startling animation that seems to have seized upon even inanimate objects, causing them to thread the mazes of intricate mechanical apparatus, as though they were the products of some marvellous factory drill 5 at, the sudden shooting" skywards, of elevators 'exptfess to the twentieth storey,' and, above all, at the extraordinary degree to which men: and womeni in America have become simply disciplined attendants upon a vast system of labour-saving machinery." According to Mr Foster Fraaer, one secret of the giddy rate of progress that strikes the visitor to New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia is the ruthless demolition of the out-of-date. "You English," a smart American -would say, "use a thing until it is worn out; we use it not a day after a better .one has been! invented." This i- ■ principle on which New York buildings have soared aloft into the clouds within a comparatively few years. Great structures erected only a decade ago are as solid as the day they were completed, yet down they must come", for are they not already antiquated? They rise but 12 stories high, their lifts travel at no more than three times the pace of those in England. Certainly, a short while back architects agreed that to erect a building of more than 16 stories was tempting Providence. But that opinion! lias been blown to the winds. The famous "Flatiron," now one of the sights of New York, proves, that building has ceased to be'a matter for architects and masons, and belongs instead to engineers and rivetifcera The Flatiron, that narrow slice of a structure which has hardly any width afc all at one end, and only 86ft. at the other, is nothing but a steel skeleton clothed with stone. It rises 20 stories, and accommodates a population; of nearly 2000 business people in its 3TO sets of offices. Mi' Foster Fraser has, however, smoked a cigar /at a window on the 29th storey of the Park Row building, the tallest block in the world. From that vantage ■point Broadway below looked like a strip of ribbon, the foot passengers like ants, and •the .great liner Campania/ in New York Harbour, was the size of a sixpenny toy boat. At that altitude the New Yorker breathes a different climate. The city dust is left far below him, and the summer I plague of flies never reaches him. New York expands upwards for practical reasons. Its busiest quarter is on; the narrowest end of an island of rock, so that latitudinal extension is impossible. Thiß is why great building trusts and companies i have been formed, who lay hands upon suitably-situated buildings of from 8 to 10 i

stories, raze them to the ground, run up others to double the height, dispose of them at a profit, and pass on to other operations. "To put up a 10-storey building in a year was thought not' long ago excellent ;p(rogress. Not to be able to put up a 20-storey building in six months is now thought evidence of slackness. To climb two stories a week is the usual progress." After all, this is but a faint reflex of tho accelerated pace at which all industrial life is moving. Newest New York real's her "sky-scraipers" with phenomenal raipidity; Philadelphia builds her locomotives (mammoth engines compared with those running on English lines) at what would have been quick time for turning out a buggy 50 years ago. From 35 to 40 locomotives leave Baldwin's works alone every week. The manager of. this establishment proudly quotes the record of a passenger engine and tender, made to order from the raw material within eight days. The material for;the boiler .was bespoken by telegraph. • Three days later the bioler was made; in another three days machinery, frame/ and wheels were attached; and two.days afterwards locomotive and tender were tried under steam. George Westinghouse, inventor of the famous railway brake, is considered an old man now in Pittsburg, though only 55. He was 25 wlien he began "making ■ things," and prior to that was a humble mechanic on a warship. "To-day he is at the head of 25 companies, with an aggregate -capital of £20,000,000, and employing more than 20,000 ipeople." At first tnis typical American used to turn out two of his air-brakes a day. His company now turns out one a minute every minute of i the 24 hours of, the day. Such are the careless "staggerers" which Mr , Foster Fraser is constantly administering to his readers throughout his book. He makes one feel the hum of ceaseless activity; the deep throb that rises from the miyr';v workshops of a people who are revolutionising commerce and industry, and changing the face of civilisation. It is no novelty to be told of the great pig-killing establishments of Chicago. Many descriptions have been written of the way in which the . animals swing past 150 men before the newly-slaughtered carcase reaches the cooling chamber, each man as the object passes him making one particular stroke or incision. The same elaborate diifision of labour attends the processes by"wlrich hams, bacon sides, isausages, and by-products. are separated and prepared for sale. Spectacles of similar marvel are to be seen at the great .food-tinning works. At Libby's, in Oiiicago, we are introduced to the romantic Christmas pudding being stirred with iron, instead of human arms, and patted swiftly into iparc&Ls by girls with every vestige of sentiment driven ouf of them. Here, also, is.the .process of souprcanning —"In the kitchen a string of tins crawled . past a crowd of girls. They put a savoury odoured fluid called soup into each, threw in a handful of collops, and let the tin pass on. Somebody'placed lids loosely on «ich. The slap of a machine fastened the lid on. The can ran along, fell on *os side, and the edge rolled through a little bath of solder. It passed into a glass chamber. A hole was punshed; all tlie air in the tin was extracted ; a drop of lead fell on tlie aperture, and made it air-tight. As though possessed by a little demon, each can ran up a fence, went gliding among a maze-ibf machinery, and when it was seen again had been automatically painted. It rolled on again brightly blue, and the next sight of it was with a bright ribbon of a label round its waist." The America of to-day shows a' society organis»ed almost entirely, ton ii materialistic basis. Everybody is ,' "hustling," not for dignity, ease, or privilege, but for success, and success spells simply money. The fierce competition must , crush down thousands, but they go because they, "had1 to" go. The men who advance are similarly those who made tip their minds that they "had to.". "What was the cause of your being successful ?" a Philadelphia millionaire was asked. "Poverty," was the laconic answer. "Poerty is the greatest blessing a young fellow can have, i It makes a 'man of him." Life is too short, ■the pace is too strong, for the American i business man to try diplomacy in' labour , difficulties. The method chosen is more , direct. "If trade unions are in their way," , says the author, "they smash them. They give better wages and wider opportunities to non-union men. They talk to the men straight. There is no sentiment on either side. 'Duty* is, not a word in the American business dictionary; 'dollars' is. They don't talk to the men about what is right or fair; they talk to them on how they can make more dollars." But after all, can the American business man, with all his marvellous motion and successful activity, write above his office door "This way happiness lies"? If not, what is the end and aim of all his hurry?