PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY. 95 



Free competition permits the most abtindant and per- 

 fect production of goods necessary for man's wants, 

 with the least possible friction. The supplying of these 

 wants in the highest possible degree — that is to say, to 

 gain the most liberal consumption — is the end or aim of 

 all production. Hence, freedom in competition implies 

 increased consumption. Where this freedom is universal, 

 and the exchange of services — that is to say, of the 

 results of labor — is not obstructed, all should gain a 

 benefit. 



Contrariwise, where services or goods made dearer by 

 friction or needless labor or unnatural conditions, on 

 the one hand, are exchanged for services or goods made 

 cheaper by a relief from friction, on the other, their 

 relative conditions are then improper and burdensome 

 to that party who has been handicapped. And now we 

 return to an important point in the subject, and reaffirm 

 that the protective laws of America produce a friction 

 which causes a relative increase in the exchange value 

 of protected commodities. 



Many illustrations may be furnished to show that a 

 friction, and a serious one, is placed on production by 

 our meddlesome laws, but a few of these will suffice. 



Wood screws are protected in the United States by a 

 duty of iacr per cent, on the foreign article. The wood- 

 screw combination is said to have paid the English 

 makers of screws ;z^25,ooo yearly, to keep their goods 

 out of the American market. We ask : has the American 

 Screw Combination paid this ^25,000 out of the pockets 

 of its members for the mere fun of it ? Has it not been 

 taken from the consumers of wood screws in the prices 

 charged them ? 



The Mills tariff bill, which was lately brought before 



