DIAMOND CUTTING 35
course, fully for increased wages paid for improved work during that period).
"Furthermore,
if some dozen years ago, at a time when protection to industries was
thought necessary, an average duty of less than ten dollars per carat
(ten per cent ad valorem) was found more than sufficient, what is the
obvious conclusion to be drawn today, when this same duty means on the
same goods not less than double or twenty dollars per carat?
"On
the other hand, trade unionism has increased in Europe even more and
with greater reason than it has in the United States; and the demands
have become more urgent in full ratio to the abuse of labor that has
been practised in the old countries. The result has been that the few
good artisans who had not emigrated to more hospitable shores, together
with the mass of poor workers remaining over there, have gradually
found better terms granted them, with shorter hours of work, than had
ever been the case heretofore. In consequence there is today a constant
narrowing down of the difference between the two scales of wages, and
it will not be long before almost equal compensation will prevail in
Antwerp and Amsterdam, as well as in America, for the best workmanship
in diamond cutting.
