94 



Tariff duties that probibit or strongly tend to the exdusion of ini- 

 l)orts, so as to benefit the special industries or productions of a country, 

 are in the nature of monopolies of tlie liome markets and are generally 

 enforced by enlightened governments. And they do not stop to inquire 

 as to the injuries that such laws may entail upon other countries. 



Tobacco is not extensively produced in Europe, and several of the 

 European governments purchase the stock, chiefly from America, and 

 manufacture and sell it on government account, and tix the prices that 

 consumers, in those countries, must i)aiy for the manufactured article. 

 This monopoly works an injury to manufacturers in America, but no 

 one has thought to nmke complaint against the governments that create 

 it, in respect to an American production. Jn this important matter 

 the Congress of the United States has no power to protect the pro- 

 ducers of tobacco or the manufacturers by an export duty on tobacco. 



Many other instances of monopoly of trade could be cited to show 

 that it is essentially a power of government Avhich any nation may 

 rightfully employ to i>rovide for its revenues and the welfare of its 

 people. 



There is, really, no conceivable case or condition connected with the 

 industry of the tur-seal fisheries in which the United States could 

 monopolize this trade, excei^t by destroying, as rapidly as possi- 

 ble, the seals on the islands. When a government finds it necessary 

 to i^rotect these animals against its own people, as well as against 

 those of other countries, by assuming to itself their exclusive owner- 

 ship, a monoj)oly is the invitable result and it is indispensable to the 

 safety of the property. This sort of monopoly is a part of the duty of 

 government and of its legitimate powers. 



It is both the right and the duty of the United States to assume and 

 to exert ownership over these animals, in order to extend to them 

 the protection that is due to useful do lesticated animals. The legis- 

 lation of nearly every government upon whose shores or islands fur 

 seals resort habitually for breeding j)urposes assumes over them a gov- 

 ernment control for their protection and the right to raise revenue out 

 of them, which is based on the right of appropriating them to govern- 

 mental uses and i)urposes, so that all those governments are in that 

 sense, monopolists. Such control can not be less than an assertion 

 of a right of property, for it prohibits all persons from asserting a 

 claim to them on private account, and it makes them a source of revenue. 

 These may be justly called laws for the domestication of the fur seals— 



