120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



His papers on the industrial development of this country, espe- 

 cially during the last twenty-five years, are cited by the advocates 

 of both policies in the present tariff controversy. Their ability 

 and fairness of statement are fully admitted. Mr. Atkinson him- 

 self believes that the tariff question is one of the minor factors in 

 the industrial history of this country ; that its influence in pro- 

 moting certain branches of industry has been much exaggerated 

 on the one side, and that its burden upon consumers has been as 

 much exaggerated upon the other. He rejects alike the theory of 

 the extreme advocate of protection, that diversity of occupation 

 has been promoted by means of the protective system ; and, on the 

 other hand, he rejects the theory of the extreme free-trader that 

 an enormous bounty has been paid to or gained by special indus- 

 tries, merely because a duty has been imposed upon a foreign im- 

 port of like kind. He holds that while manufactures would be 

 established in greater variety, and would attain ultimately much 

 greater prosperity, if free exchange could be attained by a cau- 

 tious and systematic reform, on the other hand, the market for 

 the excess of the crude products of our soil, as well as for our 

 manufactures, might be vastly extended by such reform — to the 

 end that the United States would attain a commanding position 

 in the commerce of the world, even to the extent of possibly 

 compelling European nations to disarm. Keeping in view the 

 proposition that profits, wages, and taxes are alike derived from 

 the joint product of labor and capital, he presents the simple 

 formula that " a nation free from debt, subjected to the lowest 

 rate of taxation of any nation in the world, and without the need 

 of withdrawing from productive labor an enormous number of 

 men to be enlisted in a standing army or navy, and finally en- 

 dowed with greater natural resources than any other country in 

 proportion to the population, must be able to compass a larger 

 product at less cost than can be attained in any other of the so- 

 called manufacturing countries." He therefore advocates a grad- 

 ual but sure reform of the abuses which exist in the present acts 

 for collecting the national revenue, to be brought about with due 

 regard to the present condition which many branches of manu- 

 facture have reached during the long period in which a high tariff 

 has been in force." 



Mr. Atkinson's essays, nearly all upon subjects of political 

 economy, have been published at various times since 1861 in inde- 

 pendent pamphlets, the reports of economical associations, and 

 periodicals of general circulation, such as the " Atlantic Monthly," 

 " Scribner's Magazine," " The Century," " Harper's Magazine," and 

 the " North American " and " International Reviews." The full list 

 numbers more than forty titles, including the following : " Cheap 

 Cotton by Free Labor," 1861 ; " Is Cotton our King ? " 1862 ; " The 



