thousand hectoliters." "Very well, here is a check for 350,000, No. X, on such an elevator." As the grower is generally a speculator (every man is a speculator in America), with his check he goes to the Produce Exchange and he speculates, he trades, he gambles with his grain; he sells it and rebuys it perhaps twenty times. All the grain, once classified, being stored in the elevator, together with other lots of a corresponding grade, it is no longer his own grain which the producer sells; he has been liberated from all care of storage, of handling, &c.; it is a merchandise the value of which is represented by the checks which have been given to him, and which represent the quantity and the quality delivered. This is how they manage the grain business. It is, therefore, not astonishing that the Americans have need for the telephone and for all the means at the command of active humanity.

Another branch of trade at Chicago which I must not pass over in silence is that of hogs. I wished to see this branch of trade, and I can only say to you that in the establishment which I visited, and which belongs to a Mr. Armour, business was not going on very briskly they only killed six thousand five hundred hogs per day.

I also went to visit near Chicago one of the most extraordinary things in America-Pullman City. You all know that they travel in America in an exceedingly comfortable manner, and quite differently from the French method. It was only after a long time that we finally adopted some very uncomfortable sleeping cars in France. But they are very comfortable in America. Over there sleeping cars have come into very general use, extended by Mr. Pullman, who is a man forty-two or forty-three years of age, and who has rapidly amassed a great fortune through the contracts which he has had with the different railway companies. Mr. Pullman has made a good use of his property. He said to himself, "If I have attained this fortune it is but fair that I should share it with my workmen. It is therefore just that I should do something for them." And do you know what he has done? He has created, 18 miles from Chicago, Pullman City, which is the type par excellence of an industrial town. He has established it on the borders of a little lake (Lake Calumet), in order that water may be had in abundance.

But do not suppose that the houses which he has built for the use of the workmen are any kind of interminable galleries, divided into regular compartments, and which resemble from a distance cages for rabbits. No; he has built neat, jaunty houses, so that the workman becomes attached to them, and which render his hearth as attractive as possible. It is enough that I should say to you that, having commenced to build in June, 1880, there were already in August, 1883, 7,500 inhabitants. At the center of this little town is an immense brick tower, which supports a gigantic reservoir containing water for the supply of all the houses. Each dwelling receives the water by natural pressure from the height of the reservoir; and besides there is a steam-engine of 1,200 horse-power-the Corliss machine, which propelled the section of machinery at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876-and which supplies warm water to the bath-room in each of the dwellings of the workmen. This benevolent and intelligent man has none the less provided for their moral and physical well-being, for he has built in a very picturesque, charming spot in the middle of the city an edifice which is called the Arcade, and which contains everything that is necessary to amuse the people. It has a charming library, very well arranged; the rooms are admirably lighted; the floors covered with carpets. This comfortable establishment is for the use of his workmen. Mr. Pullman has commenced to enrich this library by a gift of five thousand volumes. He pays the librarian, who is a charming woman, a genuine lady, who has been several times in Europe and speaks French. This lady is charged with issuing the volumes to the workmen. They are permitted to take them home, and what is surprising they bring them back. [Laughter.]

I have forgotten one very important point. The benefactor has said to himself, "One of the curses of my country is drink" (drunkenness is a national vice), and he has bought a sufficient quantity of land to isolate all the sellers of wine and liquors. There is not a single saloon in the district, and therefore peace reigns and the people there are happy. [Applause.]

Near by and forming a part of the Pullman establishment is a very interesting manufactory for the making of pasteboard wheels for railway cars. I have traveled miles and miles in the Pullman cars, but I had never noticed the wheels. Ah, well, these wheels are of pasteboard, simply of straw pasteboard. They are riveted on iron plates, and the tire which is around (for the pasteboard does not touch the rails) is of steel. There, gentlemen, I have learned that when one is adroit and a good trader he can do business with Americans, even the Americans, and in the products in which they excel, for these steel tires are imported from Germany, where they are furnished by the Krupp manufactory. It is calculated that these pasteboard wheels will last five or six times as long as the wheels now in use. This is only a theory, because, until now, the first have not been worn out, although they have been in use twenty-four months.

We come to Saint Louis, in the State of Missouri. At Saint Louis there are 400,000 inhabitants. The general aspect of Saint Louis is that of an old French town in the

old quarter and of an American quarter in the new. This city possesses the immense advantage of being situated on the banks of the Mississippi River and of being able to transport its grain at an extremely low rate down to the sea, by means of a system of peculiar barges, towed all along the Mississippi down to New Orleans. A single train of these barges, towed by a steamer, carries 1,000,000 bushels of grain. It is a vast advantage, I repeat, and the inhabitants of Saint Louis hope to succeed shortly in making an inland port of their city, and a mart for grain as important as Chicago. As for me, I doubt much whether they will ever reach the degree of importance that they dream of. But as there exists between Chicago and Saint Louis-separated by a distance of no more than twelve hours by rail-an intense jealousy, there is no doubt that their rivalry will incite both cities to great efforts, and contribute to their development and prosperity.

Saint Louis is not, properly speaking, a manufacturing city; still it possesses considerable industries. I say that it is not an industrial city because I place myself at the French stand-point, and because no manufactured goods are produced there which are likely to compete with our own products. There are manufactured there tobacco, candles, ordinary glassware, white lead, soap, nothing, in a word, that can come into actual competition with us, for we cannot export to such a distance produce of such weight, and of so small value in relation to its bulk.

Ah! I beg your pardon! I was forgetting that champagne wine is manufactured there. I hold it important to let you know its brand, so that you may never have a fancy to drink any of it. It is called "imperial champagne." Some years ago I went to visit that manufacturer in company with a friend of mine. This friend said to me, "you must be a great connoisseur in champagne. I will give you some to taste." The wine is immediately uncorked and my American friend, with a scrutinizing look, asks, "Well, what do you say of this champagne?" I found myself embarrassed between a complimentary politeness and my patriotism. I did not hesitate. I said, "I do not find that it can be compared with French champagne." "Oh" said he, "we are just beginning; we shall do better after a time." This year the same friend had it in mind to let me taste again the Saint Louis champagne. "Since you came seven years ago," said be, "you shall have presently a chance to judg of our progress since your last visit." I tasted and replied, "Last time it still had an appearance of wine, but now it is Seltzer water." [Laughter.] It is none the less true that a certain European nation, which I shall not name, awarded the gold prize medal to the American champagne. [Renewed laughter.]

Here we are in Cincinnati. Cincinnati is a city of 260,000 inhabitants, located, as you know, on the banks of the Ohio, an ever yellow river, like the Mississippi, always yellow and muddy, but which has this advantage of being navigable and of being open to the navigation of large steamers. Cincinnati is an industrial city, but its products, which are not many in number, do not come into competition with ours. However, they are coming to it. Cheap furniture, iron castings, iron safes, &c., are manufactured there. All these factories make existence at Cincinnati absolutely insufferable. Cincinnati is, in some sense, the Birmingham of the United States.

The industry to which I alluded a while ago is an industry of art. It has been created by a lady of society. I told you in the beginning that American women could pride themselves upon having promoted the advance of the industrial arts. Now is the time to prove it. This grande dame," Mrs. Nichols, first made some trials in ceramics of the style called "carbotine." She succeeded very well. Encouraged by her compatriots, she founded, on the banks of the Ohio, a small factory. Her effort has been crowned with success, and now she employs twenty operatives. Her products are now found everywhere. I have brought some back, and our ceramists have been extremely surprised to see that it has been possible to produce such remarkable results in so short a time.

A very significant fact occurred at Cincinnati. An association of ladies has been formed there, which has made it an object to travel, at its own expense, in Europe, and to buy such things as might assist in the development of the art industries. I went to see the embryo of the museum which is being created there, and I assure you that it does them the greatest honor. I remarked there some magnificent old laces, old guipures, old chasubles, very discreetly chosen, to serve as models for the manufacture of broché stuffs. There were also fans, enamels, pocket flasks, &c. These ladies, not having a suitable place in which to make their exhibition, had visited the president of the Art Museum of Cincinnati to ask him for one. This gentleman said to them, "I have several handsome rooms. I put them at your disposal until your means enable you to have a place of your own."

Concerning this Art Museum, allow me to tell you how it was built. The beginning was made by a Mr. West, who offered a sum of 750,000 francs upon the condition that his fellow-citizens would contribute an equal sum. Eight days afterward the additional 750,000 francs were subscribed. Delighted with this result, Mr. West made in writing a donation of 750,000 francs more, the interest of which should serve to purchase annually objects of art to enrich the museum. This remarkable example of

generosity has been imitated. Mr. Springer, whom I had the pleasure of meeting, has made another munificent gift. This gentleman was formerly a grocer. But do not imagine that an American grocer resembles those whom we see in France. A grocer over there is a great merchant, who, every year, visits different parts of the world to buy the products necessary to his trade. He learns, for instance, that new confections are made in Japan; that is for him a motive to travel in that country. This is what an American grocer is.

It is not, therefore, astonishing that Mr. Springer should have had large and generous ideas? Well, this merchant has given 625,000 francs to commence a music hall, which the city of Cincinnati needed, on the condition suggested by Mr. West, viz, that his fellow-citizens should contribute an equal sum, which was immediately done. You see that when a man returns from the United States he is absolutely permeated with this truth, that when one wishes to do something he has only to go ahead in order to succeed. [Applause.]

From Cincinnati I came to Philadelphia The Philadelphia founded by Penn is to-day very far from having the peculiar aspect which it had at the time when it was inhabited mainly by Quakers. To-day they are building there palaces, and among others a palace of justice, all in white marble and of colossal size. The Americans have very large ideas; apropos of this, I must tell you that a journal of that place, the Record, had announced that it would build a magnificent edifice, which was to be higher than the new post-office. A modification in the plans of the latter edifice made it surpass by one meter in height the building of the journal in question. Immediately it constructed a tower, which overtopped by ten meters that of the postoffice. That is the grotesque aspect of the matter; but this is the practical side: Philadelphia has to-day 900,000 inhabitants; it covers the largest area of any city on the globe, having, as I think, a length of 46 kilometers. There are one or two streets from 16 to 18 miles long. It is in Philadelphia that we find a great competition and an industrial development exceedingly remarkable. It is there where individual enterprise has played a most extraordinary rôle. At Philadelphia, I saw a certain Mr. Dobson, who came from England as a common workman, and who employs to-day 1,500 operatives. The carpet manufacture employs to-day at Philadelphia 7,000 workmen. Haberdashery and underwear include one hundred and seventy-five factories, which employ 13,000 hands; silks, seventy-eight establishments. employing 6,000 workmen; I might cite to you many other figures. I have only to choose, but I must abridge. But I can say to you that Philadelphia is the most perfect type of an industrial city in the United States. Everything is manufactured there, underwear, silk goods; above all, machinery of every kind, machine tools agricultural mechines, locomotives, &c.

And, in finishing my hasty glance at Philadelphia, I must not forget one great industry-that of petroleum. Well, the petroleum manufacture is very remarkable, and the trade of it is managed precisely in the same manner as that of wheat. You all know that petroleum comes from Pennsylvania. Four-fifths of the supply is derived from a district called "the oil country." From the place where the oil wells. are found it is sent by subterranean pipes to a part of Philadelphia called Girard Point. And what do you suppose is the total length of this "pipe-line?" Three hundred and twenty kilometers! This oil is poured into immense reservoirs at Girard Point, and when the proprietor of a well sells his petroleum he receives a check for so many hectoliters. With this check he goes to the Petrolenm Exchange, in Philadelphia, and speculates. His petroleum, when sold, is taken from the general reservoir, and he has no further trouble. You see that in that country everything tends to economize manual labor, and here I find myself quite naturally led to speak of that which I call commercial "outillage."

This is nearly a new word; it is difficult to explain exactly all that it comprehends, but I will explain it to you briefly, without trespassing too much upon your time. In France, for our correspondence, we have formulas, capital letters, and interminable salutations; over there they have dropped all that; it is too long. To conduct a correspondence one has a stenographer. The head of the firm receives his mail, and dictates at once his replies. This manner of proceeding economizes his precious time, which he employs usefully in the direction of his business, and, moreover, he is certain that his thought is precisely expressed in his letters, which is not always the case with an ordinary correspondent. The correspondence once taken down by the stenographer, the latter goes into his office, and with his manuscript in his left hand and his right hand on the keys of a writing machine he writes out his letters.

But do not imagine that it is only the great establishments which employ a stenographer. The vendors of crockery, glassware, sponges also use him.

The telephone forms another part of the commercial machinery. The telephone, why we do not know how to use it, or rather we are not allowed to make use of it. At New York I went to see a patent agent who had been recommended to me for some special business. This gentleman had his office on the ninth floor. One ascends to the different floors by one of three elevators, which are in constant operation. I

found him in his office; he had near him, even in his office desk, in order to give him the least possible trouble, two telephones. If his telephone had been placed at the end of the room he would have had to make three steps to reach it and three to return; that would have been six useless steps. From there he put himself in communication with the Western Union Telegraph Company, whose lines communicate with the entire civilized world. Here, I do not think, with the exception of a few priviledged persons, any one can send by telephone an order to the telegraph to transmit a message. Here are then three essential organs of commercial machinery: Stenography, the writing machine, the telephone.

There are other institutions which we lack, among which is the metropolitan rail

way.

When you have to go any distance in Paris, for example, in the course of your business, it is a matter of unheard of delay. One must go to an omnibus office, take his number, wait for his place; there is no end to it. Over there you have the metropolitan railway. There are four principal lines, which lead to the farthest limits of the city. There is a train on each road every two minutes. You arrive, there is a train, you enter a car, you leave; this costs you five cents, whatever may be the distance. This is again what I call commercial utility.

There are numerous other things which I would like to describe to you, but the lateness of the hour obliges me to pass them in silence. However, I must not forget the service of "messenger boys." We all know the "auvergnat," with his breastplate, who stands with his "crochet " at the street corners. He is beginning to disappear, it is true, but he still exists. It takes at least a quarter of an hour to make him understand the errand which he can do in ten minutes. Ah, well! over there you have very bright young fellows, 14 or 15 years old, who belong to an association of "messenger boys," and are organized in squads at different offices, of which, I think, there are two hundred and forty in New York. These offices are connected by telegraph with the hotels, public buildings, and even private houses. When you need a messenger, you ring; the messenger arrives quite breathless, you give him your errand, he leaves on a run, he returns and reports; how much? So much. You pay, it is finished. This costs 30 cents an hour, and you are not required to pay for the telegram; that is included in the charge. Here, then, is another institution which renders an important service. It is absolutely necessary, gentlemen, that we introduce into France all these means of human activity which offer greater facilities to commerce. We are really a century behind the age.

When an American arrives in France he imagines he has fallen upon a country of another period. When I landed at Havre, the 31st of December, I was delighted. On approaching the train I thought to myself of the snug, first-class compartment of the French railway. But I recoiled with horror, for I found the inside of the cars positively ugly and dirty; the getting in is inconvenient; it is an actual climb. And these hot-water cans, is there anything more inconvenient? Is that comfort? Is that true progress? Over there everything is warmed by steam. If one is cold, he turns a faucet and the heat comes; if one is too warm, he shuts it off.

There is one thing, gentlemen, to which I specially desire to invite your attention. Naturally, this lecture does not admit of the wide range that it might have taken if it were made before an audience composed especially of manufacturers and merchants. Nevertheless, I think it useful to say that, except certain special industries which exercise a great care and a certain liberality in packing their products, we do not know how to properly prepare our goods, so that they shall arrive in perfect condition at the place of consumption. And this is so true that when one visits a store-house and sees on the shelves merchandise badly arranged, badly exhibited, badly packed, one can say, almost with certainty, that the goods are of French origin. It requires a certain courage, gentlemen, as you understand, to dare to say a thing like this in public. People applaud much more willingly men who flatter their national pride, but I feel that I render a service and that I act the part of a patriot in thus doing violence to my feelings and stating positively facts as they are.

Gentlemen, it grows late; I must close. It follows from what I have said to you that America, although not the only cause, is one of the principal causes of the situation in which we now find ourselves brought to bay. Do not call it a crisis, and do not consider it as such A crisis has an end which can be predicted; this has no such termination. It has but one possible solution, and that must be reached by the following means; A radical change in our national spirit, comprehensive mercantile instruction, the teaching of foreign languages, which will enable the pupils to speak the language which they learn (a thing which is not yet realized), and thorough instruction in theoretical and practical geography, which is also not yet supplied. I ask pardon of the distinguished professors and scientists who are in this hall; I do not attack the geographical societies who have given evidences of usefulness and which, like this one, have set a worthy example to follow. But I challenge principally those who, having the greatest interests to follow the important modifications which electricity, steam, and all other means of rapid communication have introduced in the intercourse and relations between other nations, are so blind as to close their eyes and

not admit the reality or to provide a remedy. And then, our system of instruction should be modified. Instead of stuffing with Latin and Greek, as I was stuffed myself, the minds of the children at the tenderest age, teach them the languages of foreign countries, and above all utilize the period when the lingual muscles can most easily adapt themselves to the articulation of sounds, to which they are not accustomed by their mother tongue. Let them know that there are foreign countries which work and develop themselves, that they may not believe, in their childish innocence, that there is no other country but France. Yes, it is proper that they should believe that France is great, but great only if she will be so and labors constantly to that end. It is necessary, in a word, to reorganize our system of national and commercial education.

Before closing, gentlemen, I desire to emphasize especially the following wish: It is that there may be created a league for the dissemination of commercial intelligence, by means of lectures, delivered in all parts of the country, in order to infuse new life, and to make known what is going on beyond our frontiers. I commend this wish to the protection of the Society of Commercial Geography. [Prolonged and repeated applause.]

REMARKS ON FRENCH METHODS, BY CONSUL MASON.

The correctness of M. Lourdelet's conclusions and the clearness and force with which they are stated leave comparatively little to be said. Most intelligent Frenchmen fully recognize the industrial and commercial disadvantages under which their country is suffering. It is also apparent that some of these embarrassments are chronic and deepseated, and that effective remedies are likely to be correspondingly slow and difficult.

If a discerning American, inspired by that kindly interest which is felt universally in the United States concerning the welfare of the French Republic, were to supplement the plea of M. Lourdelet with any further suggestions he would probably remark that, while in many respects the railway service of France is admirably conducted, there are others in which it is susceptible of important improvements. In respect to tariffs of railway freights, the complaint is often heard that for certain localities they are practically prohibitory. In Marseilles, for instance, the import of English coal has increased from 38,977 tons in 1872 to 281,450 tons in 1882. There are rich and important mines of coal in the adjoining department of Gard, but such is the control exercised over local transportation by the principal railway company of Southern France that English coal can be imported more cheaply than the native coal can be brought to this port. One reads in the journals that important manufacturers in certain interior departments are being abandoned or removed to sea-coast towns in order to escape the exorbitant freight rates of the railways upon raw materials. Under a tariff of from 1.3 to 1.5 cents per ton per mile for raw materials like ores and coal it is not surprising that the important iron manufactories of the Loire are on the verge of ruin.

In the France of the future we may be sure that all this will be changed. The railways will recover their now waning prosperity by a judicious adaptation of freights to the needs and capacities of manufacture and commerce. They will learn, what is so well understood in America, that the secret of success lies not in high tariffs but in economical management and the larger tonnage which lower rates will not fail to stimulate. Their army of uniformed employés will be reduced, because improved methods of handling heavy freights and trains will render much of their present labor superfluous.

There will be also, no doubt, a radical improvement in the present methods of commercial banking, an enlargement of connections with foreign countries, an emancipation from the quill-pen, sand-box, and mail-coach period, and the adoption of methods which are contemporary with telegraphs and express trains.