WHAT IT MAY COME TO.

Apropos of the American absorption of English steamships, tobacco companies and castles, the New York journal Life publishes some amusing prophetic pictures of what we may expect to see ere long. The pictures are reproductions of the familiar photographs of well-known London buildings and monuments, with additions. The first of the series is a view of Trafalgar Square, with a view of the Nelson monument surmounted by a gigantic statue of Uncle Sam. The second shows us Parliament House, underneath which we read the inscription: "The residence of Mr. John B. Grabb, of Chicago. This building is historically interesting as having been formerly the seat of the British Parliament." The statue of the Iron Duke from Hyde Park Corner is furnished with the American flag, and labelled: "This statue is now on its way to Pittsburg." There is a view of the Royal Exchange surmounted by a gigantic bust of J. P. Morgan, with the legend E pluribus unum, and the corners are surmounted by the American eagle and an American coat of arms. Things have not got to that pass—at least, not yet.

A WARNING FROM OUR CONSUL AT CHICAGO. MR. E. SEYMOUR BELL, our Consul at Chicago, reports that while American exports in the twelve months ending June 30th, 1901, show an increase of 6 per cent., the exports of manufactured goods show a decrease of 51 per

cent.

Mr. Bell warns our manufacturers that the Americans are making efforts to capture the South American trade. He points out that the export in the past year to the United Kingdom of agricultural implements has increased 40 per cent., of passenger and freight cars 18 per cent., cotton goods 38 per cent., hops 50 per cent., scientific instruments 83 per cent., and boots and shoes 63 per cent. Moreover, Americans are taking an increasing share of the trade of Australasia. Commenting on the comparative figures quoted here, Mr. Bell remarks:

The above are only a few of the most important articles which touch most closely British manufacturers. That the United Kingdom makes such a poor show in competition with the United States is due almost entirely to the use of more perfect and more economical machinery in this country. If this is possible in America, it ought to be equally possible in other competing countries. Doubtless, when American methods are better known and appreciated, British manufacturers will not have any difficulty in meeting all competition.

Mr. Bell foresees a worse time in store for the British trader unless he wakes up. After noting the falling-off in the exports from this country to the United States, he prophesies a period of depression across the Atlantic, signs of which are already apparent. "Should this fallingoff in the home demand continue," he considers that "there will be a corresponding increase in activity as regards exports. Stocks will accumulate, and must be got rid of even at reduced prices. British traders will therefore have to make greater efforts even than formerly if they wish to compete successfully with the United States."

MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S TARDY MOVE. THE gradual increase of American trade in the British West Indies and British Guiana has led Mr. Chamberlain to appoint officials in these colonies, and also in several others in Africa and elsewhere, whose duty it is to do what they can to promote British trade. In "Blastus, the King's Chamberlain," I foreshadowed this in 1895, together with other developments. Mr. Chamberlain has thus taken six years to follow my

friendly lead. The figures of American and British trade for the British West Indies and British Guiana are in percentages as follow:

British American

1896. 1897- 1898. 1899. 1900. 56 56 54 54 52 44 44 46 46 48 Certain officials in fifteen British colonies (covering the British West Indies, Fiji, West Africa, the Straits Settlements, Gibraltar, and the Seychelles) undertake the duty of supplying more complete information as to commercial matters and openings for trade than is at present available. These officers are to receive and answer commercial inquiries which may be addressed to them either by the commercial intelligence branch or by merchants and others who may seek advice direct. They will, therefore, to some extent be in the colonies what his Majesty's Consular officers are in foreign countries, although apparently it is not intended at present that they should present periodical or any other reports. It is to be expected that most of the inquiries which these officers will receive will have a bearing upon the possibilities of their respective spheres as outlets for British manufactures.

WAKE UP! JOHN BULL, IN CHINA.

JOHN BULL is being prodded in the most unexpected quarters. Consuls, travellers, politicians and economists are now constantly taking him by the shoulder and administering a more or less vigorous shaking, and now there comes along a soldier of all men in the world, and prods up poor old John. General Gaselee, the British officer in command of our troops at Peking, has no sooner put his foot on his native soil than, being interviewed on the Chinese question, he finds it necessary to conclude his observations by the following emphatic reminder to John Bull that unless he puts his best foot foremost he will lose Chinese trade.

In conclusion, General Gaselee said :

A good deal of comment seems to have been occasioned by the landing of German troops at Shanghai. Why, I cannot understand, as the Germans have as much right to send troops there for the preservation of order as we have. It is quite time that the British public should realise that the Yangtsze is not a close borough for Great Britain. In the matter of commerce it is fatal for British merchants to sit with folded hands while others are taking our trade. We must recognise that we have powerful-and increasingly powerful-rivals, not only in Germans, Japanese, and Americans, whose trade throughout the Far East is rapidly increasing, but also in the Chinese themselves.

One

Is he Waking Up in Earnest ? JOHN BULL seems to be really waking up at last. sign of this is the visit of Sir Christopher Furness, the great North Country shipowner and iron master, to the United States. When he stepped off the Deutschland at New York on September 27th he told the interviewer :

I have come to America to visit the shipyards and steel plants of the country and to learn how the American product is manufactured and steel and iron made ready for the market. The manufacturers of Great Britain know that they have their backs up against the wall, and I am one of them. It has taken a long time for the heads of labour organisations in Great Britain to realise that, although the American labourer gets higher wages, he produces more per diem of the finished product. Therefore he costs less to his employer. They have much to fear from the competition of German and American skilled labour, and especially the latter.

solid qualities which have ever been the glory of British trade.

Pears' soap dates from the year 1789, the year which witnessed the birth of the French Revolution. On the day when I visited their headquarters in Oxford Street, Mr. Barratt had just made a contract for a page advertisement in the Times on the day of the coronation of Edward VII. Thus do the records of this firm span the centuries and link together in significant fashion the great events of modern history. They advertised in the reign of George III. and will probably advertise in the reign of George V.

Almost everything else has changed in English journalism since the days when the Times and the Morning Chronicle were publishing the stories of Napoleon's victories on land and Nelson's triumphs at sea; but one thing never changed. Year in and year out the daily newspapers which have appeared in London have always contained advertisements of Pears' soap. Many of the papers in which the earlier advertisements appeared have long since perished. Newspapers come and newspapers go, but Pears' advertisement goes on for

ever.

"I believe," said Mr. Barratt, "in two things-in Free Trade and in Advertising." The governments of the old world and the new have warred against Pears' soap. They have built tariff barriers to prevent the Isleworth soap being admitted to the wash-stands of their subjects. But the soap has triumphed over the tariff. The only effect of their taxes has been that their subjects have to pay more for Pears' soap than they would otherwise have done; but, pay more or pay less, they have bought it all

the same. To-day there is no city in the civilised world where the citizens, be they white-skinned, yellow, red, or brown, or black, cannot, and do not, wash their faces, and shave their chins, with the product of the Isleworth soapworks.

The story of the growth of the business is one of the romances of British industry. A century since it began in the humblest way. Andrew Pears-the first of the dynasty, the great-grandfather of the Mr. Andrew Pears who at this moment presides over the steaming vats of Isleworth-bethought him that he could turn an honest penny by manufacturing a first-class soap. Sovereigns and statesmen were watching with fear and trembling the earthquake throes of the Great Revolution when he set up his apparatus at the back of his shop in Wells Street, Oxford Street, and began soap-making, little dreaming that thereby he would cause the name of Pears to be as familiar as a household word among hundreds of millions of human beings, to whom the names of the Prime Ministers of his day are as unknown as those of the monarchs who reigned in Memphis long before the birth of Moses. He was an honest tradesman who made good soap, and who even in those early days grasped the fundamental principle of modern business which is a direct negation of the fallacious proverb that "Good wine needs no bush," for he realised that it was of no use to produce the best article in the world unless by some means or other you can bring the knowledge of that fact to your fellow-creatures. Do men light a candle and set it under a bushel? Do they not, rather, set it on a candlestick, so that its light may gladden the eyes of men? So thought Pears the First, and he decided

to

expedient of allow

ing no single piece

until three years after the passing of the Great Reform Bill of 1832. For when a business concern has a history which outlasts a century, one naturally strings on the changes in its internal constitution with those great alterations which affect the constitution of nations. In 1835 Mr. Francis Pears, a grandson of the original Andrew, was taken into the firm as a partner. The grandfather and grandson were the original A. and F. Pears, and the business continued in their hands for several years. In 1865 the present Mr. Andrew Pears and Mr. Thomas H. J. Barratt joined the grandson, Mr. Francis Pears, who. was then a n elderly man, and in their vigorous hands the business took a new lease of life. Mr. Francis Pears remained with them for twelve years, and then finally retired in 1877. For nearly a dozen years Mr. Andrew Pears and Mr. Barratt carried on the business alone, but nearly ten years ago they converted it into a limited liability company, known as A. and F. Pears, Limited.

of his soap to go out to the world except in a cover upon which he had inscribed with his own gray goose-quill his own autograph signature! The Pears autograph went with every cake of soap; none others were genuine. In this painful fashion the foundations of the business were laid. The original and only Andrew Pears carried on business alone from the outbreak of the French Revolution

The firm has ever remained faithful to the principles and the practice of its founder. It is true that it is no longer possible for any one member of the firm, had he the hundred arms of Briareus himself, to sign each separate piece of the millions of cakes which issue annually from Isleworth to contribute to the cleansing of the world. But the three

essentials remain. They produce the best soap, they advertise liberally, and they take stringent precautions against fraudulent imitations. The spacious palace in which the firm has its headquarters in Oxford Street is at once a tribute to the success which has followed, and a picturesque and striking illustration of the methods by which that success has been achieved. No