138 - The Tariff and the Farmer. 



000 of people has its own level of wages. The high level 

 is not given by one kind of occupation, but is the effect 

 of competition in all — in agriculture, manufacture, trade, 

 transportations, personal service. The service of all but 

 manufacture must be rendered in this country, and a 

 large part of manufacture also. Under free trade there 

 are doubtless a few branches of the latter industry that 

 would be lost to this country, but if the past is any guide 

 this would be balanced by an equal gain in foreign trade. 

 How absurd it is to believe that the loss of say $300,000,- 

 000 or $400,000,000 worth of work would cause a fall in 

 wages. That amount is an exceedingly small fraction ia 

 the total sum earned by all the people. Have the mil- 

 lions of emigrants coming to our shores caused a fall in 

 wages ? There have not been enough to supply sufficient 

 help to the farmers. 



Not only is there a prodigious amount of work to do 

 in this country, but the means has been provided by the 

 invention of machinery for a very large iDroduct per 

 wage earner. 



Mr. Gannett, before quoted, says that the average gross 

 manufactured product per hand in the United States is 

 $1900; in France, $650; in England, $485; and in Ger- 

 many, $450. He adds, ''This enormous difference in 

 efficiency between the artisans of the United States on 

 the one hand and those of Europe on the other, which is 

 due mainly to the universal use in this country of the 

 most modern machinerv and methods, enables us not onlv 

 to hold our own markets, but to invade successfully the 

 home market of other countries." 



Mr. North, one of the directors of the census of 1900, 

 says : ' ' It means that the horse-power employed in our 

 manufactures in 1900 was equal in its producing capacity 



