15 



Extraordinary inducements have been offered by this and other 

 Brazilian States, in the way of lands, prepaid ocean-transporta- 

 tion, loans to settlers, and in some instances guarantees of at 

 least $400 wages per annum. Road and railroad development 

 have kept pace with the settlement of the land. 



The price of labor is approaching a parity in all civilized coun- 

 tries within the tropics. A land or an industry which has an 

 advantage over other lands and industries, through the posses- 

 sion of cheaper Tabor, more fertile soils, more stable government 

 or legislative, and hence artilicial protection can be depended on 

 to rapidly bring itself up to the general average because of the 

 universal desire to take abnormal profits. Sooner or later and, 

 now-a-davs, sooner, the endeavor to get out of an industry all 

 there is in it, consequent upon this phase of human nature, will 

 bring about over-production. Sometimes there is actual over- 

 production of crops resulting in readjustment of prices in the 

 world's markets, and wide-spread ruin in far distant lands. The 

 synthetic over-production of indigo in Germany became a famine 

 factor in India. But modifications in indigo manufacture in India 

 have again placed the Indian ryot on a plane of fair competition 

 with German synthetic manufacturers. 



Again, over-development takes the form of planting a larger 

 area of land than can possibly be cultivated by the visible supply 

 of laborers. This was the secondary cause of over-production 

 of coffee in Brazil, and is somewhat of a factor in Hawaii to- 

 day, affecting the cost of production of sugar. The world-wide 

 remedy for this latter phase is to substitute small land owners 

 for the plantation svstem of corporate ownership of land and the 

 employment of laborers in masses. 



This remedy is being applied to relieve the coffee situation in 

 Brazil. 



The world's production of tobacco in 1903 was 2,205,174,000 



pounds. The United States leads with 815,972,000 pounds. 

 Next in order arc : 



British India 441,000,000 lbs. 



Russia 174,000,000 " 



Hungary 134,567,000 " 



Japan 95,148,000 '' 



