The San Francisco call., 1896-08-16
TREATISE ON PROTECTION
Able, Exhaustive, Accurate and
Highly Instructive IS the Tariff
History by George B. Curtiss

PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY: An Ac-
count of Tariff Legislation and Its Effect in
tiss. Royal octave, S96 pages; Pan-American
publishing Company. III Fifth avenue, New
& York; For sale by ]: ]. Newbegin. room 43,
Flood buildings price So.
A book for which three Presidential aspir.
ants have written an Introduction on the verge
OF political contest and which each has COM
mended in unqualified terms certainly de-
serves notice Messrs. Mckinley, Morton and
Reed have in their introduction, not merely
expressed their approval of the work as in
thorough accord with their own well-known
views on protection, but they have stated their
belief that it is the ablest, the most exhaustive
and the most accurate treatise on the subject
that has ever been written. This is strong
praise and coming from such prominent men
challenges the attention of every one who is
In the least interested in the subject.
The commercial history of England is treated
In 800 compactly written pages, comprising
hrst the early free-trade PERIOD during which
the English depended upon foreigners for
their clothing, implements and all manufac-
tured articles, and allowed these foreigners
the monopoly of their wholesale and retail
trade; then the gradual rise of protective
policy from the small beginnings under Ed
ward III through the great industrial epoch of
Elizabeth's reign down to the early part of
this century, when England had driven the
merchant vessels of every Continental nation
from the seas. By 1850 she stood foremost
among all the nations of the world, unques-
tionably the greatest commercial power that
had ever existed. During this entire period
protection had been her consistent and un-
wavering policy. The contrast between it and
the earlier period, when an opposite policy
was followed, is vividly set forth.
Following the tariff question in the United
Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and other
European countries, history of the tariff
question in the United States is then taken
up in its order, and all the tariff laws
which have been enacted from 1889 to the
Mckinley bill in 1892 are explained. The de-
preston in trade following the low tariffs OF
1887, 1846 and 1857 is shown to have result
ed from attempt to establish free trade.
Again, the business activity and industrial
growth resulting from the protective tariffs
of 1924, 1928 and 1S42 are contrasted with
the opposite results of low duties The pro-
tective-tariff period of 1862 to 1892 IS then
taken up in considerable detail, and the
hourishing condition of the country is
described. The causes which made the Nc
Kinley bill necessity, its various features and
the magnificent results which followed its en-
actment are presented. Chapters are also de-
voted to the growth of agriculture, the cotton,
woolen, iron and steel and various industries
OF the country. After tracing the industrial
development of the Nation through the past
third of a century under protect1on, chapter
is devoted to the recent revival of tile free
Grover Cleveland, passage of the German
Wilson bill and its effects on the commercial
and industrial interests of the country.
The work can be recommended as an
authoritative and exhaustive treatise on pro-
lection in all its phases.