This great truth ought not to be ignored. The only reason capital continued to come for one hundred years is because it could do better here than elsewhere. The only reason that it ultimately went elsewhere is because it could do better elsewhere. Meantime, immigration, most of it swelling the ranks of labor, increased solely because labor received in America a relatively larger share of the profits of business and enterprise than in any other country on the map.
No one claims that even now labor receives more than its due. I am simply demonstrating the relative rewards of capital and labor in the United States and citing positive proof that immigrants who come seeking opportunity do not pursue a barren hope.
CHAPTER XII
THE RESULT OF THIS POLICY
The policy defined in the preceding chapter is illustrated and its wisdom shown by the logical results thereof. The source and constant course of wages is also discussed.
After spending seventy-five years of our national life in the discussion of state rights, and then four years of bloody fratricidal war, the fact that the United States of America is a nation and not simply a confederation of sovereign states was definitely determined. Occasionally, we still hear people speak of “these United States.” But there are none. This one is all there is. The term “these United States” comes dangerously near a treasonable utterance. The court of last resort rendered its decree at Appomattox that the United States of America is “one and inseparable, now and forever.”
After this perplexing question was settled, the government proceeded to foster industry in the largest possible way. For instance, certain men proposed that, if properly encouraged, they would construct a railroad to the Pacific coast. They were reminded that only a few years before it had been said that not even a wagon road could be builded across the Rocky Mountains. “Yes,” says General Dodge, “but we will build a railroad.” They asked a subsidy of money, to be returned as soon as possible, and one-half of a twenty mile strip of land in perpetuity. They were given both. The land was then worthless. Do you realize that if the land that was given to the Union Pacific Railroad on condition that the road should be builded to the Pacific Ocean, had been given to the Astors, on condition that the Astors should go out and look at it each year, it would have broken the Astors. There was no way to go out to see it. In effect, the government kept most of the land for homesteaders and gave half of certain adjacent tracts to railroads on condition that they make it worth while for homesteaders to occupy the reserved portions. What is the result? The Rocky Mountain Empire, yielding all the minerals, all the metals, lumber, fruits, vegetables, with millions of people living in happy homes, and all because the government fostered enterprise and said: “Achieve and be happy.”
Where there is incentive there will always be achievement.
Permit one more illustration. One thousand can be furnished as well as one. Certain men proposed to the government that on certain conditions they would build a silk mill. The government exclaimed: “A silk mill in the United States! We produce no raw silk.” This was promptly acknowledged and likewise the higher wages necessary to be paid in America. Still they promised to build a silk mill if they were permitted to buy their raw silk wherever they could find it without paying anything to the government for the privilege, and, provided further, that foreigners who might bring manufactured silk to this market, in competition with the product of their mill, should be required to pay sixty cents out of every dollar received, into the treasury of the United States for the maintenance of this government, and go home contented and happy with forty cents. The government replied: “Go build your mill. If you cannot live on those terms, we will make the foreigner pay sixty-five cents.” What is the result? Ninety million dollars’ worth of raw silk is annually imported and forty-five million dollars are paid in wages to the workmen manufacturing it. Achieve and be happy!