EUROPEAN EMIGRATION TO AMERICA, AND ITS EFFECTS.
One of the greatest economic problems of our time is associated with the double stream which has been setting westward across the Atlantic with steady persistence for some two or three years, and which even now does not seem to have passed its height. It is a stream which is composed of the labour and the capital of the Old World. To the number of many hundreds of thousands of individuals, some of the best bone and sinew of the European states has been transplanted each year to America. And latterly, this exodus has been accompanied by a large volume of that without which labour can do little collectively. During the last twelve months especially, the number of schemes for the employment of British capital across the Atlantic has increased enormously; and at the present time, there are many millions of money, belonging to people still residing on this side, invested directly or indirectly in land, and in industries connected with land in the States of the Union and of Canada. The receptivity of the American continent in respect both of labour and of capital is very great; but it is not unlimited. Nor is the supply of either labour or capital unlimited in the countries of the eastern hemisphere. There is not as yet any imminent danger of excessive contribution in the one case and of depletion in the other; but we are within sight of consequences which it may be well to consider.
And first with regard to Emigration. It must not be supposed that America—and for the present let us confine our attention to the United States—welcomes without exception the human stream. There are undoubtedly elements in it which would be objectionable anywhere. There are hordes of paupers and loafers and ne’erdoweels, who are as little likely to do any good for themselves, or to benefit the community, in the New World as in the Old. But apart from these, there has been a flow of shrewd workers and skilled artisans, which a certain section of the American nation is disposed to regard with a sour look. The reason is not far to seek. The dominant economic policy of America has been, as we know, one of strict protection of their own industries. For the benefit of the few, the many are heavily burdened, in the belief—fallacious, and not always genuinely entertained—that in process of time the many will reap the harvest. The conductors of these domestic industries are glad enough to get all the experienced foreign labour they can; but the domestic labourer says, very naturally, that the importation is unjust to him. He says, in effect: ‘You tax foreign products to shut out competition with yourselves; but you admit freely foreign producers to compete with me. You raise the cost of living to me by the imposition of taxes to foster your trades; yet you reduce my means of living by suffering immigration which tends to reduce the level of wages.’ Here is friction, and friction which is already producing sparks. It is not difficult to foresee the result. The working-classes cannot continue to burn the candle at both ends for ever. It is not practicable for any country in these days to prohibit, or even to restrict, the importation of human beings. Nor can America say: ‘We will receive any number of farm-labourers, or miners, or anybody disposed to squat in the backwoods and open up our country; but we will draw the line at mechanics or any form of skilled labour which we can ourselves produce to the extent of our requirements.’ The effect of the supply of foreign labour would have been more apparent ere this but for the suicidal policy of the American trades-unions, which practically prohibit the evolution of domestic skill, by forbidding apprenticeship to crafts. But, nevertheless, the effect must eventually be to diminish ‘the reward of labour.’
A well-known American writer holds that the increase in the number of labourers does not tend to diminish wages, but the converse. What in his opinion causes the tendency of ‘the reward of labour’ to a minimum in spite of increase in producing-power, is that rent increases in a still greater ratio. The result is much the same, as far as the labourer is concerned, and it proceeds, whether directly, as is commonly held, or indirectly, as the American writer holds, from there being three men to house and feed where there had been only two. If, however, it be really the matter of rent or interest which affects the price of labour, then the American citizen has all the more reason to regard with attention the other portion of the stream, namely, the flow of British capital for investment in land and cattle in the West. We do not know the aggregate capital of the numerous Ranche and other Companies which have been lately formed, but it is enormous; and with private investments as well, the total British capital occupied in them cannot be short of twenty millions sterling, and probably is even considerably more. The actual amount is not material to our argument. The effect of this tremendous diversion of capital is twofold. It is increasing the value of older estates by the absorption of cheap competitive lots, and it is arousing in the Americans themselves a species of earth-hunger which promises to be very keen. There are thoughtful, observing men on the other side of the Atlantic, who, noting the disfavour into which investments in railroads have fallen, because of their comparatively poor returns—and also because of the distrust begotten by their scandalous management—and who noting, also, the rapidity with which English capital is leading the way—predict that America is on the eve of the most tremendous land ‘boom’ ever known. That means, in plain English, that the enhancement in the value of land, legitimately produced by settlement and cultivation—in other words, by the employment of actual capital and labour—will have an artificial enhancement of indefinite extent added to it by the action of speculation. In all commodities dealt in by man, there is an intrinsic value and a speculative value. When the speculative value becomes inflated above the level of intrinsic value, there ensues a period of dangerous excitement, which invariably ends in collapse and disaster. This is especially the case with land, and it is precisely towards such a critical time that America seems verging.
All this, however, seems to us to point to the probability of free-trade becoming ere long the watchword of the working-classes in the United States. With free-trade in labour concurrently with land-speculation, subjecting them to diminution of wages, and at the same time increase in the cost of living, they will have no alternative but to demand the free admission of all materials bearing on their industries and affecting the cost of living. It is possible that in the present great land-movement may be germinating the seeds of the next great commercial crisis; and upon the theory of periodicity, one of these crises will be due in a year or two. So, also, it is probable that the Emigration movement from the east has carried and is carrying with it elements which will aid in bringing about the much to be desired future of free-trade.
BY MEAD AND STREAM.
CHAPTER LI.—HEY, PRESTO!
Coutts having seen that his father and sisters were provided with all necessary comforts, hastened to the city. He had an appointment which could not be postponed; he could do nothing more at Ringsford; in town he could arrange with some contractor to send out a band of men to make the least injured portion of the Manor again habitable, and to clear away the débris as quickly as possible.
The appointment was to meet Philip and Wrentham at Mr Shield’s apartments. Coutts was confident that the bill he held was a forgery. He had no doubt Philip had been fooled into it somehow, but that was no reason why he should be fooled out of it. The way Shield had received him plainly indicated that he would give him no place in his will; whilst he was anxious to avoid scandal which would involve Philip.
‘Well, if the old fellow won’t give me a slice of his fortune, I’ll screw a plum out of it,’ was Coutts’s agreeable reflection. ‘I have the forged bill, and unless he hands me over double the amount, I don’t give it up.’