EDITOR'S TABLE. 



697 



large have very erroneous ideas as to 

 the actual results of a protective policy. 

 Most think that, in some mysterious 

 way, protection confers a benefit upon 

 all. It is notorious that in many " pro- 

 tected " occupations wages are at a 

 minimum ; it is certain that multitudes 

 suffer from their enforced exclusion 

 from foreign markets ; and it is a con- 

 spicuous fact that private fortunes are 

 on the increase both in number and in 

 average amount : yet still the delusion 

 is cherished that protection is making 

 the nation, as a whole, richer and more 

 prosperous. Mr. Atkinson says dis- 

 tinctly that " there is a vastly greater 

 proportion of farmers and farm laborers 

 whose home market depends upon the 

 export trade than there is of those who 

 might possibly be harmed if, through 

 imports of foreign articles, the demand 

 for their own products were reduced." 

 He ridicules, and with good reason, 

 the idea that Congress is fit to choose 

 occupations for the people. " What an 

 absurdity!" he exclaims. "As if the 

 people were not bigger than any Con- 

 gress that ever existed, and could not 

 manage their own affairs vastly better 

 than the average member." "With all 

 respect to our valued contributor, we 

 do not think he strikes quite the right 

 note here. There is no need to flatter 

 the people at the expense of Congress, 

 which, after all, is elected by the votes 

 of the people, and contains just as much 

 wisdom and patriotism as the people 

 care to put into it. The point is not 

 that the people are wiser on the aver- 

 age than Congress, for that is not cer- 

 tain; but that no individual is wise 

 enough to undertake to interfere with 

 the natural laws of supply and demand, 

 or to substitute artificial adjustments of 

 his own devising for those naturally ex- 

 isting in the economic sphere. We 

 would not trust all the wisdom in the 

 country to undertake such a task. There 

 is this, too, to be considered : that each 

 private individual feels for himself the 

 pressure and influence of surround- 



ing conditions upon his business, and 

 adapts himself thereto as best he can ; 

 whereas the Legislature deals with busi- 

 ness generally — the business of the 

 whole country — upon more or less ab- 

 stract principles. In this sense the 

 action of the average individual is apt 

 to be wiser than the action of Congress 

 — not because he is wiser than the aver- 

 age Congressman, but because he is deal- 

 ing with a problem more or less level 

 with his powers, whereas Congress un- 

 dertakes to deal with one wholly be- 

 yond its powers. 



A strong point made by Mr. Atkin- 

 son is his demonstration that even 

 " infant industries " do not need to be 

 nursed by a tariff when they are prop- 

 erly located and have large markets 

 open to them. The instance he cites is 

 that of our own iron and other manu- 

 facturing interests in the Southern 

 States. On the principles we constant- 

 ly hear maintained by protectionists, 

 the manufacturing industries of Penn- 

 sylvania and Massachusetts should have 

 crushed out any attempt at compe- 

 tition in the South, the latter being 

 unable to "protect" itself by a tariff; 

 but nothing of the kind has happened, 

 and Southern industries are yearly in- 

 creasing in volume and importance. 

 This is an argument to which there is 

 no answer. If the industries of the 

 South could maintain and develop 

 themselves in the face of the competi- 

 tion of heavily subsidized industries, 

 commanding vast capital and fully 

 organized, in the North, will any one 

 pretend that our national industries, so 

 far as they were in any way suited to 

 the country, could not have maintained 

 and developed themselves in the face 

 of foreign competition ? 



We can not but believe that the 

 common sense of the country will see 

 before long that this, the youngest of 

 nations, instead of leading the van in 

 the application of sound and progressive 

 principles of economic policy, has been 

 hugging to its bosom the narrowest 



