GOVERNMENTAL INTERFERENCE. 293 



admit of any ready and satisfactory explanation ; while others will 

 unhesitatingly ascribe them to the influence and acceptation of pro- 

 tectionist theories and teachings, inculcated under the advantageous 

 but specious circumstance, that the almost universal depression of 

 trade and industry that has prevailed since 1873 commenced at a time 

 when the general commerce of the world was absolutely more free 

 from artificial restrictions than at any former period of its history. 



The factors that have been concerned in effecting these economic 

 changes and accompanying disturbances are not, however, simple, but 

 somewhat numerous and complex. They, nevertheless, admit, it is be- 

 lieved, of clear recognition and statement. In the first place, the results 

 of the Franco-German "War — the radical changes in the character and 

 construction of war-armaments since that period, and the continual 

 augmentation of permanent military forces, have entailed upon all the 

 states of Europe since 1873 continually increasing expenditures and 

 indebtedness ; and indirect taxation, by means of duties on imports, 

 to meet these increasing financial burdens, has been found to be most 

 in accord with the maxim attributed to Colbert, that the perfection 

 of taxation consists in so plucking the goose — i. e., the people — as to 

 procure the greatest amount of feathers with the least possible amount 

 of squawking. 



Again, with the introduction and use of new, more effective, and 

 cheaper methods or instrumentalities of production, every nation of 

 advanced civilization has experienced, in a greater or less degree, an in- 

 crease in the product of nearly all its industries save those which are 

 essentially handicraft in character, with not only no corresponding in- 

 crease, but often an actual decrease in the number of laborers to whom 

 regular and fairly remunerative employment constitutes the only means 

 of obtaining an independent and comfortable livelihood. Every coun- 

 try with accumulating productions has accordingly felt the necessity 

 of disposing of its surplus by exporting it to the markets most freely 

 open to it ; and, as a consequence, that has happened which might 

 have been expected could the exact course of events have been antici- 

 pated, namely ; increased competition in every home market, engen- 

 dered by increasing domestic production and the efforts of foreign 

 producers to export (introduce) their surplus ; fiercer competition to 

 effect sales of the excess of competitive products by the sellers of all 

 nations in neutral markets ; and an almost irresistible tendency toward 

 a universal depression of prices and profits, and, to a greater or less 

 extent, a displacement of labor. It is also to be noted that as the 

 capacity for industrial production increases, and competition to effect 

 sales becomes fiercer, the more feverish is the anxiety to meet com- 

 petition — specially on the part of foreign rivals — by producing cheaper 

 goods ; and that this policy in the states of Continental Europe, and 

 more particularly in Germany, is antagonizing efforts to shorten the 

 hours of labor and restrict the factory employment of women and 



