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which alone need be considered here, is the desirability — nay 

 necessity — for maintaining in the interests of the well-being of 

 the nation, a due balance between agricultural and manufac- 

 turing industries. This necessity applies to both agricultural 

 and manufacturing countries — agricultural countries, because, 

 agriculture being mainly dependent upon the seasons is in its 

 nature precarious and dooms the countries to a low economic 

 position, and because exports of agricultural produce to 

 foreign countries tend to impoverish the soils in which they 

 are grown ; and manufacturing countries, because, it is danger- 

 ous for any country to rely entirely on foreign sources for 

 food-supplies which might fail in times of war. From a mere 

 theoretical point of view, the validity of the first argument 

 must be admitted, but the case is entirely an hypothetical 

 one, which cannot be realized in practice. No government 

 will be able to determine in any particular case in which 

 protection is demanded whether the conditions laid down 

 have been satisfied, and if it is a case in which the eventual 

 success of the industry is beyond all reasonable doubt, it 

 will either be undertaken by private individuals without 

 the aid of protection, or, if there is not sufficient private 

 enterprize for the purpose, the government itself should 

 pioneer the industry and lead the way. The only way to 

 determine whether the industry will succeed is actually to 

 carry it on without the aid of protection. Moreover, when 

 once protective duties are imposed, it would be extremely 

 difficult to take them off, or know when to take them off, 

 because, the withdrawal must cause suffering to the protected 

 classes by destroying that portion of the industry brought 

 into existence which could not be carried on without protection, 

 and by diminishing the profits derivable from the remainder. 

 The harm done by inducements held out to capital and labour 

 to flow into other than their natural channels would also be 

 considerable, though not easily calculable. In this country, 

 if a protective policy were adopted, it is the influential classes 

 that would benefit by it, and the industries carried on by the 

 less influential classes, who have not the means to make their 

 voices heard, would suffer. Taking the depressed hand-loom 

 industry already referred to, it would be wrong to induce 

 people to cling to a doomed industry or occupation and to 

 bring up their children in it, though in view of the sufferings 

 undergone by them it might be. legitimate and proper for gov- 

 ernment to give them special aid and enable them to betake 

 themselves to more profitable occupations. Moreover, the 

 imposition of protective duties, by calling into existence an 



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