This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ...grave social problems. Something of the same sort has happened in the growth of copper mining; though here the richness of the natural resources has counted far more, and the situation in general has been more simple. Among the forces which have been at work in these industries protective duties have probably ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ...grave social problems. Something of the same sort has happened in the growth of copper mining; though here the richness of the natural resources has counted far more, and the situation in general has been more simple. Among the forces which have been at work in these industries protective duties have probably counted for much less than is often supposed. An eagle eye in divining possibilities, boldness and resource in developing them, skill and invention in designing the most effective mechanical appliances, --these forces of character and of brains, developed by the pressure of competition in a strenuous community, and applied under highly favoring natural conditions, explain the prodigious advance. Hence we have seen not only prices steadily falling, and the domestic market fully supplied, but the beginnings of an export movement. The greater cheapness of the crude material has promoted, again, the growth of the manufactures which rest on it, and has given a further stimulus to the tool-making and machine-making industries, in which American ingenuity finds its most congenial field. These conditions are now permanent. Iron and steel, on which the material civilization of the modern world rests, are produced more abundantly than anywhere else, and at least as cheaply, --soon, if not yet, will be produced more cheaply. With the wide diffusion of a high degree of mechanical ingenuity, of enterprise, of intelligence and education, it is certain that the United States will be, and will remain, a great manufacturing country. The protective system will be of less and less consequence. The deep-working causes which underlie the international division of labor will indeed still operate, and the United States will still find her advantages greater in some.
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