The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-07-12
THE PROTECTIONISTS AND THE
COLLEGES.

The question of political economy,
as taught in the colleges of the coun-
try, is being discussed by Eastern pa
pers. Objections are raised to the
course as taught, because it is treated,
as claimed by protection organs, from
partisan standpoints, and, therefore,
is be untrue in many particulars.
WHY partisanism should be injected
into a course on political economy
can be traced nowhere else but to the
depravity of human nature, and the
professor who drags politics into his
course of teaching is unit for and
should be no longer permitted to hold |
a class in any institution of learning. |
Political economy, as applied to gov
eminent, has none other than an incl
dental relation to parties, but its rela-
ton to government is so fixed that no
professor, be he ever so intensely
Republican, and yet devoted, as
professors generally are, to scientific
truth, can indorse the policy of pro-
tections. The doctrine is one in no
wise belonging to government, and
cannot be attached to it by any process
of reasoning. Therefore professors do
not teach it, and they will not teach
it though every protectionist in the
land were to demand it. No teacher
of Greek, however orthodox in his de-
votions, ever attempted to substitute
some other word for hades, and there
fore the biblical revisers were led to
conform an English word to the
Greek Specification, no matter how it
might break down conventionalism,
no matter how much punishment in
the hereafter might be bereft of those
| terrors that had drawn many into the
orthodox fold. Hell and hell fire it
could not be, and peaceful submits
sion has been the result, though big
otry and dogmatic sentiment had to
be stormed and subdued in the
revision. So it is with-P6Htical
economy. The science is fixed upon
that which can not be changed, and
| the most violent Republican who
teaches it as a scientist and scholar
must take it as it is. not changing it
| to meet his partisan creed. The pro-
lection organs would degrade science,
and make it subservient of political
ends. Suppose they should secure the
writing and publication OF IA proposed
textbook on political economy, MAX
ing it indorsive of protection, not Il
professor in the land would adopt it.
for to do so his standing us a scientist
would be forfeited, and his classes
would leave him alone in his partisan
glory. Free trade is taught in col
Ieges as principle of political econ
omy, for the reason that protection,
as we have it in this country, has
never been held as anything more
than an expedient. No one ever
heard of the science of protection.
has ever been written upon it as an
economic principle If colleges in
culcate ideas upon free trade, and
illustrate it's influence upon govern
ment, it is because it is looked upon
as permanent policy which all gov
ernments will sooner or later attain.
| No college-indeed, no writer Oh po-
| litical ecOnomy-has ever undertaken
to demonstrate that the principles of
| protection, as we understand it in
this country, can be safely adopted as
Il purely governmental policy. Pro-
lection of American manufacturing
interests against foreign compe
tition is nothing more than an
expedient for temporary refuge.
| The advocates of the highest tariffs
are always careful to explain that the
influences they are expected to exert
are only temporary, and will even
tually give way to unrestricted COM
petition in free markets. The sc ed
ule of dissimilar and unequal tariffs
which we have adopted as basis Of
revenue would be remarkable text
book for an institution of learning
The professor who would dare at
tempt to demonstrate that principles
| might be evolved on the American
tariff, applicable to the science of po-
litical economy, would become
the laughing stock of the cultured
world. There is not an item
in it based on general principle of
political economy. The logic 10y
which one mans earnings are seized
by the government to swell another
mans profits, if demonstrated to be
proper and right, would be the most
curious anomaly that the science of
political methods has ever presented.
Protection is the creature of private
influence. Free trade is an economic
principle. The application of either
depends upon the conditions of in
dustry.