AMERICA AT WORK.
America at Work. By John Foster Fraser. (Cassell and Co. 6s.)—Mr. Fraser visited the United States last year as the repre- sentative of the Yorkshire Post, with the special purpose of esti- mating American industry, the " Captains of Labour," and the hosts which they lead. The general result at which he arrived was that, "man for man, the British workman is the superior of the American " ; and that " the weak link is the capability of the employers, the administration of great concerns." This is a note- worthy conclusion, all the more remarkable because the Yorkshire Post is not by any means a democratic or anti-capitalist journal. No one can doubt that there is too much narrowness of view, too much laissez-faire, and far too much want of education, in its widest sense, in our moneyed class. And any defects in the employer are far more fatal, it must be remembered, than defects in the employed. In matters which may be described as social there is much that is curious in Mr. Fraser's descriptions. Everything has to give place, according to him, to the national passion for " getting through." An American will knock you down if he wants to get a place on a car. " He does not want to be discourteous; he merely wants to get house." This is strange ; but stranger still is what follows. " Women on the cars take their chances. They stand and cling with the rest. It is the rarest thing for a man to offer his seat." That is surely a great change. If there is one thing on which earlier visitors to the States have been wont to insist, it has been the absolute right of women to what seats they please.
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