THE EFFECTS OF PROTECTION. 



If the foregoing estimate is well founded, it is clear that very 

 serious effects must be found both in the general state of the peo- 

 ple and in that of various industries. Let us, therefore, make 

 some general comparisons between this country and the greatest 

 of those nations which have adopted a free-trade policy, and- then 

 survey as far as practicable the several effects of high tariffs on 

 the laboring, farming, and manufacturing classes. Such a com- 

 parison must needs be more than fair to the United States, because 

 they are growing rapidly in every respect, while England has 

 more nearly reached a stationary state. 



The total wealth and annual product of this country and Eng- 

 land (applying that name to the United Kingdom of Great Britain 

 and Ireland) are given as follows : * 



Thus we see that the United States are not only behind England 

 in wealth per capita, but in product per capita ; and, still further, 

 that the same relation existed in 1870, but not to the same degree 

 as in 1880 ; England having made a greater gain during the dec- 

 ade. America gained $24 per capita in wealth during the decade, 

 England $145 ; while the product per capita in America increased 

 $3, and that in England increased $25. 



In wealth per capita, Mr. Mulhall ranks the nations as follows : 

 1. England ; 2. Holland ; then France, Denmark, Australia, United 

 States, Sweden, Canada, Belgium, Germany. In annual earnings 

 per capita Australia is first ; then England, the United States, 



takes from some and gives to others, yet all are Americans — " it is all in the family." This 

 proposition and the other great stand-by, that " foreigners pay the tariff-taxes," I find it 

 difficult to answer seriously. When a philosopher starts out with an inconceivable proposi- 

 tion, it is rather difficult to argue. But we may say, in the first place, that justice has some 

 place in the family as well as elsewhere. Moreover, much of what is taken from the people 

 is, from an economic point of view, wasted : it is used up in sustaining extravagant and . 

 old-fashioned processes, unfavorable locations, and the like. 



* See Mulhall's " History of Prices," which is generally accepted as a work of the high- 

 est authority. 



