56 The Tariff and the Farmer. 



in the last fifty to sixty years a large fall in the price of 

 manufactured goods? Because of great improvement in 

 methods and in the machinery of production. These 

 same agents have been at work in the agricultural field, 

 but no such degree of success has followed here. Listen 

 to Mr.- North, one of the chiefs in the preparation of the 

 census report of 1900. In the American Monthly Eeview 

 of Eeviews of September, 1902, he says : ' ' The increased 

 horse-power employed in manufacturing is, on the whole, 

 the most striking fact brought out by the census. The 

 total horse-power so employed was reported in 1890 as 

 5,954,655; in 1900 as 11,300^081, an increase of 89.8% in 

 ten years. It is commonly calculated that one horse- 

 power is equivalent to the labor of ten men, a very low 

 average, since it makes no allowance for the fact that the 

 engine never tires and never varies. It means that the 

 horse-power employed in our manufactures in 1900 was 

 equal in its producing ca]3acity to the labor of 113,000,000 

 able-bodied men working everv dav in the vear. How 

 insignificant in contrast appears the contribution to in- 

 dustrial wealth of the 5,316,892 men, women and children, 

 the actual average number of persons employed in the 

 census year to direct and supplement this tremendous 

 power. ' ' Again ' ' to the much more general use of power- 

 driven machinery in this country may safely be attrib- 

 uted the remarkable advance of the United States to the 

 first rank among the manufacturing nations." Again, 

 ^'the apparent value of products per wage-earner has 

 increased from $1065 in 1850 to $2148 in 1900." Mr. Car- 

 roll D. Wright says : " It is impossible to arrive at an 

 accurate statement as to the number of persons it would 

 require under the old system to jDroduce the goods made 

 by the present industrial system with the aid of inven- 



