n other words, he would be a gainer to
the extent of only L9 per annum by living and working in the United
States. Finally, if we presume that 48 or 50 per cent., rather than 62 per
cent., measures the higher wages of Massachusetts, the same man's
increased wages would be L90 instead of L99, and he would-neither lose nor
gain in money by becoming an American citizen, and adopting American
habits.

That these conclusions agree with those rough and ready practical
illustrations which, without being scientific, are generally trustworthy,
let the following story evidence.

Some years ago, a skillful moulder, in my then firm's employ, left us for
the States, where he permanently settled. After a long absence, he
returned for a few weeks' holiday, when I asked him whether he earned
higher wages and found life more agreeable in America than in England.
"Well, as to money" was his reply, "I think, taking all things into
consideration, I did about as well in the old shop as I do now; but,
socially speaking, I am somebody there, while here I am only a moulder."
Social advantage, indeed, probably measures almost all the difference
between the position of a skilled factory operative in the States and in
England.

Let me not seem, however, to undervalue that difference. Statistics, after
all, do not dominate human nature; on the contrary, human nature
determines the statistician's figures. Every artisan emigrant to America
gains opportunities of advancement of which his European fellows know
nothing. If he have brains, the way to success is open there, while it is
practically barred to anything short of genius for men of his class in
Europe. Our Australian colonies, where unskilled labor can earn 7s. 6d. a
day, and live for a trifle, are, indeed, a paradise for the mere
wage-earner, who can scarcely help becoming also a wage-saver; but America
is the country which, with wage conditions such as I have attempted to
portray, still offers the best possible opportunities of success, and even
of great careers, to clever working men, and especially to clever
mechanics. That man, however, is not worthy of a home in the great
republic, who does not appreciate the higher social levels at which native
labor desires to live, who is not anxious to make the most of the
advantages which democratic institutions offer him, who does not, in
short, ardently desire to become a "good American."

There remains the question already alluded to as inext