190 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
I 
As regards the more advanced manufactures of iron and steel, 
the emphasis shifts. Natural resources become a minor element 
in explaining the industrial achievements; human factors count 
most. The comparative advantage is found to rest chiefly on the 
national character and national aptitude, factors elusive of expla- 
nation yet persistent in effect. 
A significant indication of the cleavage between industries 
that prove to have an advantage of this type and those that lack 
it is found in the export and import situation. Some of these 
finer manufactures of iron and steel have been steadily sent out of 
the country and sold in the open foreign market. Others, appar- 
ently of the same character, have been steadily imported, and this 
even in the face of high duties. How can both sorts of trade go 
on side by side ? 
Among the articles steadily exported are builders’ hardware 
(such as hinges, locks, door knobs), saws and tools, machinery, 
cash registers, typewriters, sewing machines, electrical machinery 
and apparatus, locomotives. In the same class belong (tho not 
included among “iron manufactures” in the official statistics) 
agricultural implements and machinery. All have been sold to 
foreigners in large quantities, year in and year out thru several 
decades. For this trade there can be only one explanation. The 
things are made cheaper by Americans than by their foreign 
competitors, and therefore sold cheaper. In them we have a 
comparative advantage. Mechanical skill and ingenuity among 
the inventors and technical directors; organizing and managing 
capacity among the business leaders; steady and intelligent appli- 
cation by the rank and file in the workshops — all these count. 
Much also is due to the ability of the American business man in 
managing a well-devised plant and turning out a large quantity 
of uniform, standardized, perfected articles. It is significant that 
tools and implements of all kinds, made in turn with much use of 
other tools and implements, form the largest items in these exports. 
And it goes without saying that the domestic market for articles 
of this kind is supplied by the American manufacturers beyond 
peradventure.