The same holds good of the growth of the cotton-weaving industry in
America, as the following table shows:--

+------+-------------+-----------+-------------+
| | Yearly | Cost of | Yearly |
| | product | labour | earnings |
| | per worker. | per yard. | per worker. |
+------+-------------+-----------+-------------+
| | Yards. | Cents. | Dollars. |
| 1830 | 4,321 | 1.9 | 164 |
| 1850 | 12,164 | 1.55 | 190 |
| 1870 | 19,293 | 1.24 | 240 |
| 1884 | 28,032 | 1.07 | 290 |
+------+-------------+-----------+-------------+

Of Germany and Switzerland the same holds. Every improvement of
machinery increasing the number of spindles or looms a worker can
tend, or increasing the pace of the machinery and thus enlarging the
output per worker, is attended by a higher weekly wage, and in general
by a shortening of the hours of labour.

A detailed comparison of England, the United States, and the
Continent, as regards the present condition of the cotton industry,
yields the same general results. A comparison between England and the
United States shows that in weaving, where wages are much higher in
America, the labour is so much more efficient as to make the cost of
production considerably lower than in England; in spinning, where
English wages are about as highly paid, the cost of production is
lower than in America (p. 156). A comparison between Switzerland and
Germany, England, and America, as regards weaving, yields the
following results (p. 151):--

---------------------+-------------+-----------+----------+--------
| Weekly | | |
| product | Cost | Hours of | Weekly
| per worker. | per yard. | labour. | wage.
---------------------+-------------+-----------+----------+--------
| Yards. | | | s. d.
Switzerland and | | | |
Germany | 466 | 0.303 | 12 | 11 8
England | 706 | 0.275 | 9 | 16 3
America | 1200 | 0.2 | 10 | 20 3
---------------------+-------------+-----------+----------+--------

The low-paid, long-houred labourers of the Italian factories are
easily undersold by the highe