COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE AND PROTECTION 179 
of the arguments commonly heard in the popular controversy, and 
particularly those on the supposed effect of protection in raising 
wages or keeping them high, can be understood and weighed only 
in the light of the doctrine of comparative advantage.! mn 
The principle of comparative advantage applies more fully and 
unequivocally to the United States than to any country whose 
conditions are known to me. The difference in money wages 
between the United States and European countries is marked ; 
the difference in commodity wages, tho not so great, is none the 
less also marked. Notwithstanding the high wages, constituting 
an apparent obstacle or handicap for the domestic producer, the 
United States steadily exports all sorts of commodities, not only 
agricultural products, but manufactures of various kinds. Evi- 
dently they could not be exported unless they were sold abroad as 
cheaply as foreign goods of the same sort are there sold; and 
that these, the products of highly paid labor, are exported and 
are sold cheap, is proof that American industry has in them a 
comparative advantage. There are other goods which, tho not 
exported, are not imported; goods where the balance of advan- 
tage is even, so to speak. They are not such as are ruled out 
of the sphere of international trade once for all, because of great 
bulk or necessity of production in situ; they might conceivably 
be imported ; yet in fact they are not imported. These are the 
products of industries in which American labor is effective, yet not 
effective to the highest pitch; effective in proportion to the higher 
range of money wages in the country, but barely in that propor- 
tion, or less than in that proportion. The explanation of their 
continued importation lies in the fact that the terms of trade are 
so favorable to the United States that this country gets the best 
!In the pages which follow I have made free use of passages from books which 
[ have already published. Most of the matter thus used for the second time is 
from the book on Some Aspects of the Tariff Question. The rest is from the essay 
on Wages and Prices in Relation to International Trade, contained in the volume 
of collected papers entitled Free Trade, the Tariff, and Reciprocity. I have repeated 
in part the same language, since it seemed not worth while to put in other words 
what had already been expressed as well as lay in my power. The reader who may 
wish for a more detailed exposition, and for further illustration and proof of some 
conclusions here stated with brevity, is referred to these books. In the present 
chapter I have tried to put together a summary statement of the outcome of ex- 
tended inquiries.