Hs 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
assistants and workmen, also paid at rates low in comparison to 
those of other countries. I will not say that this was the only 
factor that served to give Germany her unique position in the coal- 
tar industries. There were others, not least the marked faculty 
for elaborated organization which had developed during the latter 
years of the 19th century; a faculty that told with special effect 
in an industry like this — intricate, large in its scale of operation, 
yet not characterized by mass production. For the present 
purpose it is enough to note the influence of the labor situation. 
The special cheapness of the types of labor needed to an unusual 
degree in the industry served to give it a comparative advan- 
tage — that is, an advantage in the pecuniary terms which are 
decisive in the markets. And the advantage doubtless was not 
confined to the coal-tar and other chemical industries. It was 
probably generic. It appeared in scientific industries of other 
kinds, such as for example the making of optical instruments, 
surgical instruments, laboratory apparatus. Not one industry 
only, but a considerable number of German industries similar in 
character were given a place of their own in international trade 
because of the special position in Germany of the grade of labor 
needed for their products. 
Quite a different illustration, derived from the situation of a 
group lying not in the upper line of workers but in the lower, is to 
be found in the United States during the same period. A marked 
peculiarity of the American labor situation during the generation 
preceding the Great War was the comparatively low rate of pay 
for the unskilled laborers. It was low, that is, in comparison 
with the pay of the upper stratum of the skilled laborers. While 
the pick and shovel man got more in the United States than in 
Europe, he did not get as much more above the European rate 
as did the American mechanic. The differential in favor of the 
mechanic was greater in the United States; the unskilled were 
relatively cheap, even tho not absolutely so, for the American 
employer. The cause is not far to seek. The enormous influx of 
immigrants maintained a great supply of unskilled labor and kept 
down its rate of pay. In the manufacturing industries of the