THE LOGIC OF FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 49 



totally unfounded. The champions of both free trade and pro- 

 tection have hitherto waged their combats clothed in mail. Their 

 swords have been of lead ; their lances, wood. And, like the 

 modern French duels, no lives have been lost and no blood shed. 

 Hence the duration of the contest ; hence its f ruitlessness. Tariff 

 discussions have been conducted on the assumption that the 

 prosperity of trade was due to one of two systems. Instead of 

 working from effect to cause, the cause has been assumed, and the 

 struggle has been an endeavor to reconcile given facts with given 

 theories. Hitherto it has been a drawn battle. As often as the 

 advocates of commercial restriction have laid claim to those 

 periods of national prosperity when their system happened to be 

 in vogue as evidence of its success, the free-traders have as often 

 and with equal right claimed like success under eras of free trade. 

 And when these have associated times of commercial depression 

 with the protective system, their opponents have retorted by 

 instancing years in which free trade was accompanied with panics 

 and business stagnation. The high-tariff periods of 1824 to 1833 

 and 1842 to 1846 are offset by the low-tariff period of 1840 to 1856, 

 and the panic of 1857 by that of 1873. The growth of the iron 

 industry under protection is balanced by the death of the ship- 

 building industry during the same time. With such instances, 

 gathered from a century's experience, the cause of the duration 

 of this contest which threatens to be perpetual becomes 

 apparent when we consider the lines along which the battle has 

 hitherto been conducted. In England it was conducted somewhat 

 differently, hence the results were different. There the leaders 

 fought with sterner weapons, and the fight was fought to a finish. 

 The difference between the English free-traders and the so-called 

 free-traders of the United States consists in the former professing 

 what their name indicates. They have followed their theory to 

 its logical conclusion. The latter, however, have always stopped 

 short of absolute free trade. Often, in fact, the dispute on this 

 side of the Atlantic has been nothing more than one of "tweedle- 

 dee " and " tweedle-dum." Instead of a difference of principle, it 

 has generally been one of percentages. We think the fruitless- 

 ness of these controversies has been due principally to the method 

 of reasoning employed. Both sides have used the same argu- 

 ments, and both have been equally effective. Both parties have 

 rested their claims on the teachings of experience, and both have 

 drawn equal encouragement from similar results. It becomes 

 evident that so long as this position is maintained, so long the dis- 

 cussion will remain in statu quo ante helium. 



Recently, attention has been called to a renewal of the combat, 

 and the occasion has received more than ordinary attention, owing 

 to the great distinction of the combatants. Indeed, it is doubtful 



VOL. XXXVIII. 4 



