Evening star., 1901-12-30
SIGHT, TODAY
The Economic Delegates at the Vari-
Gus Public Buildings.
INSPECT METHODS OF CENSUS OFFICE
Visit New Library Building and
Lunch at the Shoreham.
PROGRAM FOR TONIGHT

The delegates of the American Economic
Association now holding their fourteenth
annual meeting in this city in the Column
bian University Halls of Law and Diplo-
macy, did not convene this morning, but
spent the day visiting the various public
buildings.
BY special invitation of the director of
the census they visited the census Office
at 10 o clock this morning and examined the
operations of the department. Full provi-
sion was made for an explanation of the
work Of the census, and full oppo1tu-
nifty was afforded for the delegates to in
spect the interesting processes of census
tabulation The delegates were much in
terested in all that they saw.
After the tour of the census bureau the
sightseers visited the Congressional Libra
ry where a brief account of the resources
of the library for economic research
given. An opportunity was also afforded
for an inspection of the internal arrange
ments and workings of the library.
At / O'Clock the visiting delegates of the
association were entertained at a luncheon
given at the Shoreham by the Washington
Economic Society.
Public Finance.
This afternoon at 2:3O o'clock the asso-
citation assembled at Columbian University.
NneFe luS lOlO"lIS interesting papers were
read on the subject of public finance: 'Por-
to Rican Finance; Comparative Study of
Spanish and American Systems of Colonial
Finance" Thomas S. Adams, University of
Wisconsin, late of the office of the treasurer
of Porto Rico: discussion, Jacob II. Hol-
lander, associate professor of finance, Johns
Hopkins University, treasurer of Porto
Rico; Report of the Committee on Uniform
Municipal Accounts and Statistics Moses
n. Baker, chairman, editor Engineering
News; discussion, Charles E. Curtis. vice
president of the City Bank of New Haven;
Roland P. Falkner, chief of division of
documents, Library of Congress.
The program for the sixth session of the
association. which will be held tonight at
o clock is as follows, and it will mark the
Historical Associations
/. Party Legislation in Parliament, Con-
gress and State Legislatures" A. Lawrence
Lowell, professor of the science of govern
ment. Harvard University.
.. Discussion.
5. 3.'Historical Materialism and the Eco
nomic Interpretation of History" Edwin r.
A. Seligman, professor Of political economy
and finance, Columbia University.
4. Discussion: Isaac A. Loos professor of
political science, University of Iowa: Fred
erick j. Turner, professor of American his
tory, University of WISCONSIN.
Possibilities of Protective Tariff.
At the afternoon session Saturday Prof.
teresting paper ON the possibilities of a
protective tariff. He said in part:
'It will be the purpose of this paper to
support the three following propositions: A
tariff duty is necessarily paid by the
home consumer: a protective tariff may be
so framed as to raise wages a protective
tariff may be so framed as to attract labor
and capital from 1.-THE less productive into
the more productive ihdustres-judged from
the standpoint of the Il community rather
than from that Of the individual business
man. +..''i' .''
Whether the home consumer pays the
tariff duty or not depends upon whether
or not the tariff duty raises the price, in
the home market, Of the article upon which
1t is collected. The question then becomes:
Under what conditions will a tariff duty
occasion an increase in the domestic prod
uct sufficient to counterbalance the diminu-
tion in the amount imported? If the duty
is laid upon an article not producible at
home under existing conditions and at eX-
iSting prices. there can manifestly be no
such increase in the domestic product and
the price will rise in consequence of the
duty. How large a share of the duty will
be added to the price of the article will
depend upon the comparative elasticity of
the demand and the supply
Largely by Foreign Producer.
when the demand is elastic and the
supply relatively inelastic, the burden of a
tariff duty will be borne largely by the
foreign producer and to only a sight ex-
tent by the home consumer. When the
demand for the article is inelastic and the
supply relatively elastic, the burden of the
duty will fall largely upon the home con-
sumer. When both the supply and the de-
mand are very elastic a tariff duty will
tend to be prohibitive. There is no better
ground for contending that a tariff duty
on an article already producible at home
under the law of diminishing cost would
raise the price of the article. II. however,
the article Is one whose home produe. n
is in the hands of monopoly, the shut
ting out of part Of the foreign product
would increase the monopoly's power over
the home market and give it an opportu-
nifty to exact a somewhat higher price than
would otherwise be possible.
I'VE, therefore, not only have the GER
tainty that each individual will try to di-
rect business activity in the line most con-
ductfve to his own interests and that in
many cases his interests will not har-
moriZe with the interests of the communi-
ty, but also the certainty that the power to
give this direction differs greatly among
different individuals. Did we not know it
as matter of direct observation and ex-
perience, We might predict from these
premises that the business activity of the
community would not, in all cases. be d.
rected In the most productive lines. and
that. therefore, it would be possible. by
some form Of discrimination. to attract la
Dor and capital from the less productive to
the more productive industries.
Protectionists' Opportunity.
'In a community where land is extern
sively cultivated it is presumably because
extensive cultivation produces the best re-
suits from the standpoint Of the land own
er. Any one Of several conditions may in
duce him to change to intensive cutiva-
ton. A fall In price Of labor, fall in the
price of the products of extensive cultiva-
ton. and rise IN the price of products of
intensive cultivation. There lies the op-
portunity for thes protectionist By some |
discrimination which will tend to increase |
the proftableness9of the intensive product |
or decrease. relatively at least, the protlt- |
ableness of the extensive product, an abso- |
lutely larger and more valuable product |
might be createdsl This would support a |