The body of gentlemen appointed by Mr. Chamberlain to inquire
into the condition of our trade and industries, and to suggest a tariff to remedy our alleged commercial evils—a body, it may be remembered, which, though with no official origin and merely nominated by a private person, assumed the somewhat grandiloquent title of "The Tariff Commission" —issued a Report on Thursday dealing with the iron and steel trades. Considering the parentage and composition of the " Commission," it will create no astonishment to learn that they find that our steel and iron trade is in a most serious condition, and is relatively declining. As a matter of fact it is actually increasing, but then other nations—i.e., Germany and the United States—have increased more rapidly in output, and are now ahead of us. We are only declining, as Lord Rosebery so well pointed out, if a young orator's gradual proficiency in public speaking means a decline in the oratorical powers of other speakers already proficient. But though the volume of our iron and steel industries has "relatively declined," its profits have increased immensely, because, as always happens, we, the Free-trade country, have the pick of the industry. The iron and steel trade profits assessed to Income-tax in 1895-96 were £1,934,000; they were in 1901-2 £6,600,203. That is a relative decline which we confess leaves us cold.
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