ig6 The National Geographic Magazine 



unit of product is diminished in just 

 proportion to the advance in the rate of 

 wages that are secured by those who be- 

 come skilled in the conduct of the work. 

 It therefore became manifest to me, as 

 it is now becoming manifest to the great 

 mass of the people of this country, that 

 the fear of foreign so-called pauper labor, 

 by which destructive duties on imports 

 have been chiefly maintained, is foolish. 

 We are surely learning that we have 

 relatively the cheapest labor in the 

 world, for which the highest relative 

 wages are paid. 



I learned that, with the exception of 

 a very few of the crude products of the 

 tropics and with the exception of a very 

 few arts, like the manufacture of Brus- 

 sels lace and other similar luxuries which 

 are produced by hand labor at the level 

 of pauper wages, we might hold para- 

 mount control. I became convinced that 

 just so fast and so far as our system of 

 collecting revenue from duties on im- 

 ports could be limited to the least num- 

 ber of articles and collected only for 

 revenue purposes would the manufact- 

 ures, mechanics, arts, and agriculture of 

 this country be most fully protected, the 

 development of domestic industry most 

 fully assured, and the imperial control 

 of commerce, which of right rests with 

 us on account of our control of the im- 

 perial metal, iron, would be fully assured. 



I now recognize with much satisfac- 

 tion that I have lived long enough to 

 witness this true theory of wages and 

 the source of profits generally accepted 

 by men of affairs of this country, and I 

 may live long enough to see this coun- 

 try take its true place as the paramount 

 power among the nations by becoming 

 the greatest example of the free ex- 

 change of product for product and serv- 

 ice for service with all the states and 

 nations of the world. The same study 

 of geography and other factors in the 

 production of fibers might lead others 

 to a different conclusion. I am only 

 giving my own egotistigraphy. 



And now, having read the foregoing, I 

 must yet add a few more thoughts, even 

 at the risk of going beyond the limit of 

 the space that you can assign to me. 

 One great benefit from the organization 

 of this Society may be that we may no 

 longer be compelled to go to Germany 

 for the best maps and commercial at- 

 lases of the world ; that we may not be 

 compelled to go to England for the only 

 commercial geography of any merit in 

 the English language, but may secure 

 such improvements in our own school 

 atlases that the instruction in geogra- 

 phy will be something more than memo- 

 izing, as it used to be in my day, and 

 something more in the line of a true 

 education than I believe it now is. 



Yet again, in witness of the impor- 

 tance of true knowledge of commercial 

 geology and geography, let it be re- 

 membered that the great developments 

 of science in the manufacture of iron, in 

 the application of steam power, pre- 

 ceded only by a few years the great 

 Napoleonic wars, giving to England the 

 power to develop mechanism and manu- 

 factures to carry on that great war, 

 developing her commerce and increas- 

 ing her wealth even during that long 

 struggle. 



And, again, let it be borne in mind 

 that the whole basis of the modern in- 

 dustrial development of Germany rests 

 upon the invention of two Englishmen, 

 Gilchrist and Thomas, by whom the 

 manufacture of basic steel was made 

 possible from the phosphoric ores in 

 Germany, thus enabling Germany to 

 rival England in the development of 

 mechanism and manufacturing arts and 

 to take a position equal to Great Britain 

 in the production of iron and steel. 

 These two remained dominant forces 

 until through the development of the 

 yet greater deposits of iron and coal of 

 the United States we were enabled to 

 take the dominant position in the pro- 

 duction of the imperial metal, which 

 lies at the foundation of all the indus- 



