180 
= a 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
, Tm TEE al i. 
Pana SEAT E  T 
PION HEE A 
i a 
yield for its labor and capital by turning, not to every industry in 
which it has some comparative advantage, but to those only in 
which it has the greater advantage.! And finally there are goods 
whose importation continues, even tho there is no obvious obstacle 
to their domestic production from soil or climate. These are 
things which could be produced to as good advantage at home as 
abroad; but they lack the comparative advantage, or lack a suf- 
ficient advantage. They do not measure up to the standard set by 
the dominant industries; the obstacle to their successful prosecu- 
tion within the country is not physical, but economic. In this class 
belong also the industries which are protected and which would not 
hold their own without protection. They are in a position analogous 
to that of the strictly domestic industries in which labor is not effec- 
tive, but which, being carried on of necessity within the country, 
have high prices made necessary by high money wages. The 
obvious difference between the two cases is that the circumstance 
which causes the strictly domestic industries to be carried on is an 
unalterable one, such as the difficulty or impossibility of transpor- 
tation ; while that which causes the protected industry to become 
domesticated, even tho it lacks a comparative advantage, is the 
artificial one of a legislative barrier. 
What, now, are the causes of industrial effectiveness and com- 
parative advantage? To put the question in other words, what 
are the industries in which a comparative advantage is likely to 
appear? and, more particularly, in what directions is the labor of 
the people of the United States likely to be applied with special 
effectiveness ? 
The answer to this question which is suggested or implied, even 
tho not explicitly stated, in most of the literature on the subject, 
is that differences in effectiveness and cost rest on physical causes. 
They are the consequences of climate, soil, the stores of mineral in 
different parts of the earth’s crust. They are not the results of 
man’s action; they merely respond to man’s utilization. The 
most significant point of novel character which is brought out by 
American tariff experience is that side by side with the physical 
1 See what is said in Chapter 9.