Page 435 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

THE PRESErtT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND OUTLOOK 427
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case specially requires examination in detail. But apart
from that, what is immediately obvious is the actual
occupation of a growing community on the one side,
and its ability, on the ot~er side, to obtain what it wants
by exporting" something" abroad, either in the shape
of manufactures so-called, or of those invisible exports
which have been above described.! If the population
is not occupied in one way, it is occupied in another;
and the result is surely the best decision of the question
of the relative merits of the employments. We may
assume without any question that it is in the growing
employments that wages are highest; and that in the
older manufactures. which grow at a less rate, or perhaps
diminish a little, the real difficulty is to obtain labour
at a profitable rate when there is so good a demand for
it in other directions. Along with the new develop-
ments the more profitable parts of the older groups of
manufactures remain. and it is the weaker parts. which
the workmen leave to find better employment, that
shrink. Change of employment is. of course, a serious
matter for workmen who have been trained to do cer-
tain things. but new machinery and new growths. in-
. direct as well as direct. involve such changes. which
workmen, like all others, must make the best of. Much
prejudice has been imported into the discussion by
assertions that the dice have been loaded by foreign
protectionist governments. whose high tariffs prevent
the importation of British manufacwres while our mar-
kets are free. and so on. As a matter of fact. however,
the real difficulty in the way of our exporting to what
are called protective manufacturing countries with
high tariffs. apart from the want of demand owing to
changes of fashion and the like. is the ability of those
countries to compete with us even in neutral markets,
p,rid our own home markets. without any tariff pro-
tection at all. '{he supposition tha.t t~;y do so o!lly
by the various processes of .. dumpmg or by havmg
, See supra. vol. ii .• pp. 417. 418 II u,.