Hence tle wages paid to laborers in the ricefields of the South are manifold greater than those paid to laborers in the riceproducing countries of Asia. In the former not less than twothirds of the cost of production is disbursed in vages.and doubtless the same fact will hold true in China. Japan. and India. while evidently the contrast in this element of cost should render unnecessary any further comment than that without the intervention of the existing import tax on Asiatic rice competition would seem impossible. It is common to cry out against the socalled excessiveness of this duty. when it is in fact very far from being apportioned to the comparative value of American and Asiatic labor. We have here then this industry. the outlook of which is so favorable. in which white men and colored men are employed. in which machinery is about to be used in harvesting the product. and in which the labor with which we come in competition receives about as much by the year as we pay by the fortnight. It does seem to me that under these conditions a higher rate of duty should be levied upon the importation than my amendment imposes.