Now the cost of Labor is analyzable into three variables only, namely, (1) the _efficiency_ of the labor; (2) the _rate_ of nominal wages paid; (3) the cost to the employer of _that valuable_, in which the wages are paid. Let us see: what an employer wants _is to get things done_; consequently, if an employer hire two men to work for him at the same rate of wages, and if one be twice as efficient a laborer as the other, the _cost_ of the labor of the first is only one half the cost of the labor of the second: therefore, a _high rate of wages_ does not mean _a high cost of labor_ whenever and wherever the laborers are very efficient. As a rule, it is found, that the cost of labor in reference to a given product is _the least_ in those countries, like the United States and Great Britain, in which the rates of nominal wages are _the highest_; because, it is found also, that a high _efficiency_ of laborers accompanies both as a cause and as an effect high rates of wages. Secondly, there are striking differences in the rates of nominal wages paid for a day's work in the same general employment in different parts of the same country, and especially in different countries. The agricultural laborer in the west of England, say in Wiltshire, gets about 10_s._ per week, while in the north of England, say Nottinghamshire, laborers at the same general work get about 16_s._ per week. Walker in his Wages-Question gathers from the best authorities many such statements as these: "On the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada the French-Canadian laborers received 3_s._ 6_d._ a day, while the Englishmen received from 5_s._ to 6_s._ a day, but it was found that the English did the greatest amount of work for the money." "In the quarry at Bonnieres, in which Frenchmen, Irishmen, and Englishmen were employed side by side, the Frenchmen received 3, the Irishmen 4, and the Englishmen 6, francs a day; and at those different rates the Englishman was found to be the most advantageous workman of the three." "The statistics of the iron industry in France show, that on the average 42 men are employed to do the same work in smelting pig iron as is done by 25 men on the Tees." "In India, although the cost of daily labor ranges from 4-1/2_d._ to 6_d._ a day, mile for mile, the cost of railway work is about the same as in England." Thus it is plain, that a _high rate of wages_ does not import a _high cost of labor_, but rather the reverse. A vast mass of current fallacies are disposed of in a moment by this truth seen in its grounds. The United States have shown in the past the highest rates of nominal wages in the world, and at the same time have shown the lowest costs of labor to the employers, because as a rule the laborers here have been more efficient than elsewhere. England has the highest rates of wages and the lowest costs of labor in Europe for the same reason. The degree of _efficiency_ shown by different laborers is the second variable in a cost of labor.