A PROTECTIVE TARIFF AND EXPORTS. 101 



article to be more desirable than its European rivals, even though 

 they be offered at a lower money price. 



(2) Labor-saving machines, which may be tended by one or 

 more persons, sometimes even by a child, yet which will do the 

 work of five, ten, fifteen, twenty-five, or a hundred able-bodied 

 men in a day, reduce cost in production to a small fraction of its 

 former amount, and overmaster the competition of manual pro- 

 cesses still in vogue in Europe. 



Our common chopping axe is an example under the first prop- 

 osition. An immense amount of intelligence has been expended 

 upon this instrument of toil. Its weight and shape, the bevels of 

 its sides, the location in the general mass of the hole which re- 

 ceives the helve, the position, length, and curvatures of the han- 

 dle, have all been designed to accomplish the most work with the 

 least outlay of strength. These adaptabilities have been largely 

 neglected in the manufacture of the foreign axe. Hence it is that 

 the Sheffield (England) Telegraph said, not many weeks ago : 

 " The steel of an American axe is so superior to that of an import- 

 ed axe, that no pioneer who understands his business will ever 

 carry any other with him into the wilds." And hence it is that 

 the London (England) Times said editorially, in the early part of 

 1871 : 



The Americans succeed in supplanting us by novelty of construction and ex- 

 cellency of make. They do not attempt to iindersell us in the mere matter of 

 price. Our goods may still be the cheapest, but they are no longer the best, and 

 in a country where an axe, for instance, is an indispensable instrument, the best 

 article is the cheapest, whatever it may cost. Settlers and emigrants soon find this 

 out, arid they have found it out to the prejudice of Birmingham trade. 



An example of the advantages derived by this country under our 

 second proposition is to be found in the manufacture of clocks, in 

 which we outrival the world. All the important parts of these 

 cheap time-keepers are made by labor-saving machinery. In 

 1841, Connecticut clocks were just beginning to be exported to 

 England, where they sold at first at an advance of a thousand per 

 cent, on cost. 



This export trade is constantly increasing in quantity and in the 

 number of foreign markets. During the four years ended June 

 30,1874, we exported clocks and parts thereof to the value of $3,- 

 107,712, fractionally distributed as follows: In 1871, $552,155; 



