Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/177

Rh "Articles which are in universal demand, such as gold and silver, depend for their value mainly on the cost of production. So universal is the demand here for ordinary male labor, that its value will not vary much from the expense of its production in this country. This cost Mr. Kapp has probably exaggerated in making it double that of Germany. It would be safe, however, reckoning from the expense of supporting a laborer's male child in Germany, to call the capital value of the most ordinary farm hand at least $1,000 or $1,100 in the United States.

"This estimate alone would justify all the Commissioner's enthusiasm as to the pecuniary value of emigration.

"It is a little less than was the old market value of the male slave, for the reason, probably, as Mr. Olmsted has shown, that the pecuniary value of slaves was somewhat speculative, based on the expectation of profit from the best cotton lands.

"There is another method of obtaining the capital value of the male emigrant, which we throw out for the consideration of your readers interested in questions of political economy.

"Each laborer is worth (pecuniarily) to the country the profits from his production over and above the expense of his support. His average cost to his employer is, say, $20 per month and 'keep', or about $400 per annum. It is believed that an ordinary profit on common labor upon a farm is from 15 to 18 ¾ per cent. This would leave the gain to the country from $60 to $75 annually. This, at seven per cent. interest, would represent just about the capital value estimated above, or about $1,000 or $1,100 for an average male laborer."

So far Mr. Brace. I freely admit that the economical principles set forth by him are incontrovertible; but, on the other hand, I claim that actual experience has established the correctness of the position I have assumed. The basis for my statements and estimates is chiefly this:

In a comparatively new country like the United States, with its immense area and the rapid development of its resources, the demand for labor is always greater than the supply. There are, it is true, some pursuits in which this is not the case. During the winter, too, in large cities, hundreds and thousands of emigrants are often unable to find suitable employment or an