THE EFFECTS OF PROTECTION. 3 



the East, by which, they save labor and build up their country. 

 He will then be in a position to see, by analogy, the evils which 

 have followed in the train of protection, even in this country of 

 vast extent and limitless resources. And, on the other hand, he 

 will not fail to see the analogy between the success of that natural 

 system which prevails in the United States, and is practiced by 

 each of us in our private capacities, and the policy of industrial 

 liberty which a few nations have been led to adopt. 



The plain primary effect of a tariff and its main jDurxDOse, so far 

 as protection is concerned, is to raise the price of the article im- 

 ported by the amount of the duty. It may be, and to some extent 

 doubtless is true, as claimed, that internal competition afterward 

 reduces the market price. But the jjrimary effect is manifestly as 

 stated, if the article continues to be imported. This increase of 

 price necessarily is borne entirely by the consumers, except in cer- 

 tain special cases (as where the supply market is very small in 

 extent, and where prices would consequently rise very fast with 

 the unfettered demand of the American consumers), since we have 

 no means of forcing foreigners to ship goods here except at the 

 same rates which they would be willing to sell for if there were no 

 tariff. But, of course, it may be that the tariff is so high that the 

 imports practically cease, and the American market is supplied 

 by American producers, though at an enhanced cost over what 

 would have been necessary to pay, with the world to choose from. 

 In this case the consumer, of course, still pays this enhanced 

 price, whether or not, as the protectionist contends, he somehow 

 gets it back. With these few points in mind we will proceed to 

 determine in a few particulars, as nearly as may be what this 

 country has actually paid by reason of our high tariff. It is 

 greatly to be regretted that materials do not exist to make a com- 

 plete showing of what the protective features of the tariff have 

 cost the people without benefiting the Government; but a few 

 instances may serve as illustrations, and will faintly indicate the 

 enormous extent of that forcible transfer of wealth from buyers 

 to sellers which has been made by prohibitory tariffs. 



The average price of steel rails in this country has for the past 

 twenty years been at least $15 per ton more than in England. 

 There has been a consumption of at least 30,000,000 tons neces- 

 sary to lay and repair our 156,000 miles of railway. More than 

 two thirds of this amount has been bought at home. The Gov- 

 ernment has, therefore, forcibly transferred about $300,000,000 

 belonging to one class of American citizens to another class, by 

 laying an embargo on the business of the first in favor of the 

 second.* In some years the demand for steel has been so great 



* In the year 1887 Carnegie Brothers & Company, of Pittsburg, manufactured 192,- 

 998 tons of steel rails at a cost of $26.79 per ton, and sold them at an average of $37.12-^ 



