PROTECTION 163 



of intense interest to all ; and especially to those 

 who are imbued with the spirit of Protection for 

 our industries. 



The broad question of whether Protection would 

 work to the general economic advantage of India 

 or not is deserving of careful consideration, as the 

 issue may at some future time be forced to the 

 forefront. 



One object of tariff Protection is presumably 

 the " encouragement " of domestic industry, and 

 it is effected by the imposition of Customs duties 

 on impprted goods for the express purpose of 

 prohibiting, or at any rate restricting, the imports 

 of such goods as are similar to, or may be sub- 

 stituted for, goods manufactured or produced in a 

 given country. 



The means whereby Protection works, and the 

 method in which it is intended to work, is by rais- 

 ing Home prices. If you do not raise Home prices 

 as a result of restricting foreign competition, you 

 can hardly " encourage " industry; if you succeed 

 in " encouraging " industry by a tariff, it can only, 

 I think, be by raising Home prices. That is an 

 axiom on which all economists appear to be agreed. 



Now any such artificial increase in Home prices 

 which Protection ensures, and by which it operates, 

 may lay a grievous burden on the shoulders 

 of our population. In some countries where Pro- 

 tection has been established the evils of this in- 

 evitable result have indeed been mitigated by 

 natural or artificial circumstances unconnected 

 with tariffs. Thus the natural wealth and vast 

 mineral and agricultural productiveness of the 

 United States, and the inventiveness and energy 

 of their inhabitants, have enabled them for many 

 years to bear a tariff burden under which other 

 communities must have succumbed. The energy, 

 thrift, and enterprise of the population of Ger- 



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