ANNUAL REPORT, 
41 
000, Tvliich can be easily doubled. We sent to the United States 
in 1872 366,000 watches. In 1876 we shall barely send then 75,000 
watches. The Americans have already begun to send their manu¬ 
facture to Europe. In England they sell annually from 20,0 00 to 
30,000 watches. The American watch commences to drive from 
the English market the Swiss watch, and even the English watch. 
The Americans began by creating a demand for their goods in the 
Indies and in Australia, and then — thanks to some powerful im¬ 
porting house— they invaded England. At Moscow and St. Pe¬ 
tersburg they have already established important branch offices. 
Their aim is to drive us first out of their own country, and then to 
compete with us on our own soil. I sincerely confess that I per¬ 
sonally have doubted that competition. But now I have seen — I 
have felt it — and I am terrified by the danger to which our indus¬ 
try is exposed. Besides, I am not the only one to think so. The 
Societe Intercantonale have sent a delegate to make inquiries, and 
his report perfectly agrees with mine. Up to this very day we 
have believed America to be dependent upon Europe. We have 
been mistaken. The Americans will send us their products since 
we cannot send them our own. Their importation is not confined 
to watches alone. i\lready America has commenced to send cotton 
goods to England, which hitherto monopolized that article in the 
markets of the world. 
“ Can the Americans maintain their prices? Yes, they can; for if 
they obtain a good profit on their superior quality of goods, they 
can afford to be satisfied with a smaller profit on the lower grades 
of watches. In America everything is made by machinery; here 
we make everything by hand. In Switzerland about 40,000 work¬ 
men make, on an average, each forty watches per annum. In the 
United States the average is about 150 watches. Therefore the 
machinery produces three and a half to four times more than the 
workmen. 
“ Had the Philadelphia exhibition taken place five years later, we 
should have been totally annihilated, without knowing whence nor 
how we received the terrible blow. We have believed ourselves 
masters of the situation, when we really have been on a volcano. 
And to-day we must actually struggle, if we do not want to encoun¬ 
ter in all the markets that rival manufacture. For a long time we 
have hoped that the customs duties, amounting to 25 per cent., 
