The Press., 1888-08-16
(For The Press.)
 PROTECTION.
No. 4.

What is protection? The fundamental idea of protection is this The productive and manufacturing industries of the coun- try should, as far as facts show it to be necessary, be protected against unfriendly and injurious competition in our own markets by similar industries in other lands. Is protection necessary. We think it IS, and for this reason The economic history of this country, from the earliest period, shows that when our manufactur- ing, agricultural and commercial industries have not been protected they have de- clined, and when protection has been re- stored to them they have prospered. The question is one of fact, and not of theory, and is to be determined by actual expert. ence. "From 17S3 to 17S9 the trade of the thirteen old states was perfectly froe to the whole world. The result was that Great Britain filled every section of our country with her manufactures of wool, cotton, linen, leather, iron, glass, and all other articles used here and in four years she swept from the country every dollar, and every piece of gold. d."-(Bolle's Finan- oial Hist. of U. s. IT. p. 437.) This ex- perience in free trade led to the adoption of our first national tariff in l7S9. From that time to the present protection and free trade have alternated, as one party or the other has been in power, but the nd. vantage has always been with protection. l Is protection a monopoly No; it con- fers no exclusive privileges to manufac. ture and sell certain articles to any one class. The article protected may be man. ufactured, or produced in some other way, by any one in the protected district who has the capital and the skill to do if. Iron, or wool, or any other article protected, I l. l,xyo xJh haa tha means and the skill requisite. There may be monopoly in protected articles as there are in free trade articles, such as anthra- cite coal and petroleum.
 Does not protection make a monopoly in prices No; protected business is free to all. If it is found to be very re- munerative to those engaged in it other capital will be drawn towards it, and the supply will be increased up to, and, per haps, beyond the demand. Producers competing with each other will tend to keep the price down. Producers must be sellers, and will all have to gc on the mark. ct together, and must sell for what they can-get. The law of supply and demmnl will regulate the price as with articles pro- duced under free trade system.
 Does not protection increase the price of the foreign article in this market? and is not that tax on the poor man2 We say, "Yes" to both parts of the question !; but it would not be fair to stop with it.. The price of the imported, protected arti- cle Is increased to the cost of the domestic article, so that both go on the market at the same price but this increase in the price of the foreign article amounts to the increased cost of production of the same goods here. The price of the imported article must be made equal to the cost of producing the same article here, or else we must give up the attempt to produce it here but that would be an evil to the country which agriculture and commerce would both feel We regulate prices in our own market, as it is but right we should. The tax on the imported article is paid first by the importer he adds it to the price of his goods when he sells them, and the buyer and consumer pays it final- ly. He, how ever, is not compelled to pay it, as he is not compelled to buy. What ever tax he pays in this way goes to sup port his government, and relieves him of so much taxation in some other, and less satisfactory, way. As a matter of fact, the poor man is benefited by the tariff on the imported article, as it helps to give him employmentif he is an operative, or miner, , or farm hand; or is engaged in agriculture. , It may, also, help him by relieving him of part of the burden of direct taxation.
 l We must fix our own prices which pro- lection enables us to do; or we must sub- init to have the foreigner do it, which he l can do under free trade, and which he would do to his own advantage, or else he , would be fool O. P. O.